CLIMATE-UK.COM'S REVIEW OF THE BRITISH METEOROLOGICAL SCENE

MONTHLY SUMMARY

No. 580

For APRIL 2004

RATHER WARM BUT VERY WET. MARKED SHORTAGE OF SUNSHINE IN SCOTLAND.

Text Box: The month opened with southeasterly winds followed by a spell of northwesterlies from the 5th-10th. High pressure then developed over the country for a time, but the weather became very cyclonic between the 17th and 21st before high pressure returned. The month ended with a northerly type in occupation.

The first three days were mild, changeable and rather windy with widespread rain; 35mm fell at Sennybridge (Powys) on the 3rd. The wind veered westerly on the 4th then northwesterly, and the weather became appreciably colder with frequent showers which were often heavy with hail and thunder. The showery activity diminished on the 8th as pressure rose, and the following night was fine with local frost; Sennybridge recorded -4.0ºC. The Easter holiday (9th-12th) was largely dry with variable cloud and it turned a little warmer again, then from the 14th-16th many eastern, central and southern districts were dry and warm with sunny periods, the temperature reaching 20ºC in London on the 16th, but the north and west became less settled and cooler. Aboyne (Aberdeenshire) reported -4.1ºC early on the 16th.

A depression now tracked south-eastwards from near Iceland, becoming very deep and complex over the British Isles during the 18th/19th. Aberdeen recorded 971 mbar early on the 19th, and over much of southern Britain this episode produced the lowest April pressure for a decade. Eskdalemuir (Dumfriesshire) recorded 47mm on the 17th/18th and highs of 7 to 9ºC were typical; it was brighter on the 19th, but vigorous showers were accompanied by thunder and hail, notably in Cornwall and Surrey. Further belts of rain crossed the country on the 20th/21st, and the wind gusted to 60kn in the Western Isles.

High pressure brought warm and mainly sunny weather which lasted from the 23rd-25th with maxima of 20-23ºC reported widely. A few thunder-showers broke out in Yorkshire late on the 25th, and although some places stayed fine and warm thunderstorms developed more widely over the next two days. Tyneside, York, Sheffield, the Black Country and Worcester were badly hit on the 26th, and south London was seriously affected on the 27th. Northerly winds had already brought a sharp drop in temperature to western and northern Britain, and all areas became colder during the last three days of the month with highs of just 7-9ºC even in the south on the 29th. There was further heavy rain, thundery in places, in eastern, central and southern England, but western and northern parts of the UK were dry and sunny; Tiree (Inner Hebrides) logged 46 hours of sunshine from the 27th onwards.

This was the third consecutive warm April and it ranked 13th warmest in the last 100 years, but in marked contrast to 2002 and 2003 this one was generally wet and dull. Rainfall exceeded twice the normal over a large swath stretching from Cambridgeshire to Northumberland, and also in the southwest Midlands, but several places along the west coast of Britain reported a shortfall. Sunshine slightly exceeded the average in southern England, but Scotland had a very dull April – Leuchars (Fife) had its lowest April sunshine since 1961, and Kinloss its lowest since the station opened in 1952.

TEMPERATURE

SUNSHINE

RAINFALL

Highest and lowest totals

Highest and lowest totals

on record for month

on record for month

PLACE