The year is flying by and we're already well in to the spring season.
A quick look back at March reveals it was a warmer month than average, and parts of south east England had their equal mildest March since records began in 1910. Wales and northern England were wetter than average, but the hydro regions of Scotland received less rainfall than average. More details can be found on the Met Office website.
It's also interesting to compare the cumulative rainfall over Glasgow for the period October 2016 to March 2017 with the previous year, which was much wetter. The graph above shows the historical observations (grey shading) with the latest six months observations in black (near the bottom of the historical range), and the blue line representing last year (one of the wettest on record).
Looking at the prospects for April, it appears to be a typical changeable month but mostly on the warm side. A large area of high pressure will drift across Ireland and the UK during 5 - 8 April, bringing mostly fine, dry weather with light winds. A gentle southerly drift and some hazy sunshine could potentially bring a very warm day in south east England with temperatures reaching 20 Celsius on Sunday 9 April. The high pressure then makes its way to the Black Sea, as low pressure becomes established near Scandinavia.
The weather map on the main page image shows the average five day pressure, starting 10 April. A westerly wind sets in and this could be the wettest spell of the month in western Scotland. Elsewhere, the weather will be a mix of sun, cloud and showers, as temperatures stay close to average levels.
Not much change in the weather pattern is likely for the middle of April, with a typical mix of sunny intervals and April showers, with some hail, thunder and rainbows mixed in! There are weak signals for the end of the month with the possibility of high pressure returning to northern Europe to give some very pleasant spring weather.
So all in all, rainfall, wind speed and sunshine levels should end up close to the long term average for April, but we predict temperatures will be 1 to 2 degrees above average for the third consecutive month.
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