After a mild and wet winter, March came in much sunnier and drier than usual with near average temperature levels for the UK. Data from the Met Office across the 30 year climate reveals the mean temperature as being 0.1C above average, sunshine at 134% and rainfall just 82%, and you can see the healthy sunshine levels for March in the Met Office bar chart above.
April started a little chilly in most places, but a significant change in the weather patterns means we're likely to see a much warmer climate over the next few days. The warmest weather is expected to be between Sunday 5 and Saturday 11 April, with maximum temperatures reaching between 18 to 21C in London, 14C in Aberdeen and Dublin, and 16 degrees in Cardiff. Sunshine levels should be way above average on some days, most notably on Sunday 5 April, although we can also expect some windy spells.
The week of Monday 13 April should also be very pleasant with an area of high pressure settling near to southern Ireland. This should bring some dry weather and the MetDesk map in the summary image shows the expected precipitation anomalies, where the yellow and orange colours over Ireland, the UK and France show drier than average for the period for this time of year.
The high pressure will tend to drift towards Scandinavia during the last 10 days or so of the month. This should keep most places relatively dry and sunny, apart from perhaps the far west and south west of the country. Easterly winds could also bring some low cloud to the North Sea coasts, with the possibility of fog patches forming overnight and dispersing in the mornings.
In summary for April, we're expecting a similar trend to March; drier and sunnier than average for the UK and Ireland, but also significantly warmer than the 30 year average. Hopefully, some fine pleasant Spring weather to come.
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