History of Aberystwyth
2020+


2020

World Population


-6000
0.01
-4000
0.02
-2000
0.03
-1000
0.05
- 500
0.10
1
0.20
1000
0.31
1750
0.79
1800
0.98
1850
1.26
1900
1.65
1950
2.52
1955
2.76
1960
2.98
1965
3.33
1970
3.69
1975
4.07
1980
4.43
1985
4.83
1990
5.26
1995
5.67
2000
6.07
2005
6.45
2010
6.89
2015
7.34
2020
7.80
in Billions

January 30: WHO said it was a Global Emergency

The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 virus outbreak to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

February: Wettest

Wettest February since 1862 when records began.

March 26: Lockdown

Britain goes into into the first of several lockdown isolation measures to protect from the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the virus was already widely distributed throughout the UK.

April: Sunniest

Sunniest April in the UK since 1929.

May: Sunniest Month & Spring

May is the sunniest month in the UK since 1929 which helped to make 2020 the sunniest spring on record.

June 20: Set the record for the highest temperature in the Arctic Circle

A temperature of 38°C was recorded 115km North of the Arctic Circle in the small, Siberian town of Verkhoyansk. Typical winter temperatures in Verkhoyansk are below -40°C. In summer 2020 this whole region experienced a prolonged heatwave that caused widespread fires.
Records began in 1885.

July 31: 3rd hottest day

Reaching 37.8°C made this the 3rd hottest day ever recorded in the UK

August 4: Beirut Explosion

At a warehouse in the port of Beirut in Lebanon a fire set off a sequence of events that detonated 2,750 tonnes of stored ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The explosion registers 3.3-4.5 on the Richter scale and is one of the largest, artificial, non-nuclear explosions in history.

August 10: Flash Flooding

Heatwave conditions triggered a mid afternoon thunderstorm that caused flash flooding. Much of North Parade was flooded, Queens Road and Terrace Road were also affected. Ripping out and replacing the Arts Centre's flood damaged flooring took 6 weeks.

August 24: Innovation Campus

Completion of the university's new £40.5m bioscience facility the Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus at Gogerddan.

September 18: Panty'

The first building to be built on Penglais campus was Pantycelyn hall of residence in 1951. By 2015 it was considered to be no longer fit for this purpose so was closed while the university considered alternative uses for the building. Five years and a £16.5m renovation later it re-opened again as a hall of residence.

October 3: Ciara

Wettest day ever recorded : Storm Ciara dumped an average of 31.7mm of rain on the whole UK. (Records started in 1891)

November 5 - December 2: mini Lockdown

4 week pandemic lockdown in England.

2020: Warm & Wet

2020 is the 3rd warmest since 1884 and the 6th wettest since 1862.

2020: Set record for the joint hottest year globally

Records began in 1880


Global Temperature

Graph showing all of the hottest years have occurred recently
Global Temperature Rise 1850-2020
Professor Ed Hawkins
Used under license (CC BY 4.0)
Desaturated from original

2021

January 15: Blown Apart

A undersea volcano erupted between the remote, uninhabited, tiny islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai 65km from Tonga's main island. This was, by far, the largest explosion measured by modern instruments. The sound was heard in 9,700km away in Alaska. The plume carried 23km of material 58km up into the atmosphere which sparked nearly 400,000 lightning strikes during the first 6 hours of the erruption.

April 28: Touching a Star

The Parker Solar Probe is the first spacecraft to visit the sun's 'atmosphere'.

April 29: Heavenly Palace

The core module of Tiangong (China's space station) is launched.

April: Coolest

Lowest average minimum UK temperatures for April in 99 years and the 3rd coldest since 1884 when records began.

July: New Hot

Earth's hottest month on record 16.73°C. (1.4°C above the 20th-century average)
Records began in 1880.

August 14-15: New Rain

For the first time in recorded history rain, rather than snow, has fallen on the summit of Greenland's ice sheet.

September 20: School Vet

The first batch of students enrol with the School of Veterinary Science at the University.

October 22: AberInnovation .. Open .. Officially

First Minister of Wales officially opens AberInnovation, the university's new £40.5m bioscience/agri-food technology facility. £23.1m came from the European Regional Development Fund.

December 10: Vet School .. Open .. Officially

Prince Charles officially opens the university's School of Veterinary Science

December 25: James Webb Space Telescope Launched

6.5m mirror lens optimised for infrared light

December 31: Warmest New Year's Eve

Temperature reaching 16.5°C in Bala set a new record warmest New Year's Eve in the UK. The previous record was 14.8°C set in 2011.

2022

January 1: Warmest New Year's Day

Temperature reaching 16.3°C at St James Park set a new record warmest New Year's Day in the UK. The previous record was 15.6°C set in 1916.

February 24: Russia invades Ukraine

.. creating the most European refugees since the 2nd World War.

March 31: Full Genome

The full Human Genome is finally sequenced. A 'Rough Draft' (=92%) had been published in 2000 but it took until now to sequence the more difficult sections.

June 30: Queen's Baton Relay

With less than a month to go until the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, an Olympic Touch shaped relay baton was passed through Aberystwyth. It had already been travelling for over 250 days around the British Commonwealth and was passed around Wales for 5 days.
(cf Olympic Touch in 2012)

July 19: Hottest Day & Night

Reaching 40.3°C at Coningsby in Lincolnshire set a new record for the hottest day. The previous record was broken by over 1.5°C making this the first time temperatures of over 40°C have been recorded in the UK. Temperatures fell away slowly leaving Emley Moor in West Yorkshire with the new record for the minimum overnight temperature of 25.9°C.

2023