The UK in April
Mike Hulme on last month’s weather
DAYTIME TEMPERATURES
April was another rather
cool month in the UK, more so in the west of the country than elsewhere. Strangely, the two warmest days in April
were the 1st and 2nd, when daytime temperature reached
13C as a nationwide average.
Thereafter, temperatures rarely managed to exceed the monthly norm. The southeast of the country was the mildest
region during April, Guernsey and Lowestoft both averaging more than 0.5C above
usual. In contrast, Birmingham and
Eskdalemuir were both about 1.5C colder than normal. Three of the last four April’s in the UK have now been colder
than the long-term average. The year to
date in the UK has been slightly colder than average, although worldwide
temperatures remain well above normal.
RAINFALL
For the eighth successive
month, rainfall in the UK was above the long-term average, during April by
about 56 per cent. Although this was
wet, the month was nowhere near as wet as April 1998 or April 2000, when rainfall
was more than twice the normal. In
fact, the north of Scotland was drier than normal during April 2001 and Lerwick
recorded only 54mm rainfall, 25 per cent drier than average. England and Wales, however, were wet and
this rainfall was distributed fairly evenly throughout the month. The wettest single day was the 4th. Much of the midlands were twice as wet as
normal and Birmingham, as well as being cold, was also very wet.
SUNSHINE
Despite the very wet
sequence of months the UK has experienced recently, most of these months have
been sunnier than normal and April was no exception – just! Nationwide, sunshine totals were about 3 per
cent above average. The south and north
of the country enjoyed most of this extra sunshine, whereas the midlands –
Northern Ireland, northern Wales and northern England – were cloudy. The sunniest day of the month, and of the
year so far, was the 20th, when well over 9 hours of sunshine were
recorded across the UK. Although
sunshine totals for the month were just above average, the UK has not
experienced a really sunny April since 1990.
Dr Mike Hulme is a Director
of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at UEA
(more details at website at
www.tyndall.ac.uk)
April 2001: Cool and wet, but dry in Scotland
Daytime Temperature: 0.4C below average; Rainfall: 56% above average; Sunshine: 3% above average.
[all average figures are
based on the 1951-80 average]
Mean monthly extremes:
Warmest Guernsey 13.1C
Sunniest Tiree 195 hours sun
Wettest Eskdalemuir 123mm
Coldest Lerwick 7.6C
Cloudiest Scarborough 117
hours sun
Driest Kinloss 33mm