APRIL BROUGHT its usual crop of showers, but there were
also some prolonged downpours that triggered local flooding,
notably in southern Scotland and northern England in the
middle of the month. One extended spell of dry and sunny
weather was confined to the northern half of Scotland between
the 16th and 26th. Temperatures fluctuated either side of
the average, but the warm days outnumbered the cold ones,
and the mean monthly temperature was 1-2ºF (0.6-1.2ºC)
above the long-term average in most parts of the UK. The
average afternoon maximum temperature ranged from 46.4ºF
(8ºC) at Fair Isle, between Shetland and Orkney, to
58.8ºF (14.9ºC) in central London, while the average
overnight minimum temperature varied between 34ºF (1.2ºC)
at Braemar in Aberdeenshire and 46.2ºF (7.9ºC)
at St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly. The warmest day in
Lyneham for April was the 30th a glorious 20ºC was
reached, just in time for the May Bank holiday.
There were few individual temperatures of note. The 70ºF
(21ºC) threshold was not approached until the last
day, yesterday, when 72ºF (22ºC) was reached in
London; the lowest reading of the month happened during
the early hours of the 9th when a minimum of 22.6ºF
(-5.2ºC) was recorded at RAF Benson, between Oxford
add Reading. On the 8th the temperature climbed no higher
than 32.2ºF (0.1ºC) at Lerwick in Shetland, making
this the coldest April day there since 1985.
Rainfall, averaged over England and Wales, totalled exactly
three inches which was 22 per cent above the long-term average,
but it was not quite as wet as April 2004. The equivalent
figures for Scotland were 2.9in and 24 per cent above, and
for Northern Ireland 2.6in and 15 per cent above. Lyneham
recorded just over 62mm of rain for the month, experiencing
three extremely wet days. On the 6th April, 9mm rainfall
was recorded, the 18th 13mm was the heaviest downpour and
on the 6th April 10mm fell.
It was an exceptionally wet month in much of southern and
western Scotland, in northern England and in Devon. All
these areas reported two to two-and-a-half times the normal
amount of rain. The largest total to hand was 8.3in at Capel
Curig in Snowdonia. It was not a wet month everywhere, though:
parts of northeast and central Scotland, Lincolnshire and
the Midlands, and also much of the London area recorded
a shortfall. Driest of all was Lossiemouth in Morayshire
where the month's total of 0.76in was half the normal amount.
Much of northern and western Scotland enjoyed eight consecutive
days of almost unbroken sunshine from the 19th to the 26th,
but the first fortnight was exceptionally cloudy. In the
Midlands, this was the dullest April at some stations since
1993. |
