UK climate summaries

UK last month

April 2012

With low pressure over or near the UK for most of the month, the weather was generally unsettled with numerous showery days. There was some snow in northern areas early in the month and longer spells of rain especially in the last week.

The UK mean temperature was 0.6 °C below the 1971-2000 average, and it was the coldest April since 1989. Unusually, AprÍil was colder than March (the last time that occurred was in 1998) and the temperature failed to reach 20 °C anywhere (this last occurred in April 1989). Most of England, Wales and eastern Scotland were much wetter than normal, making it provisionally the wettest April on record across the UK (somewhat wetter than April 2000). Much of eastern and southern England, east Wales and eastern Scotland recorded well over twice the normal amount, with three times normal in places. The number of days with rain was comparable to that in April 1998, the highest in the last 50 years. Only the western fringes of Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland were drier than average. Sunshine amounts were close to or somewhat below normal over most of the UK, but it was sunnier than usual along the west coast of Scotland, the Western Isles and the west of Northern Ireland.

A maximum temperature of 19.7 °C was recorded at Kew Gardens (Greater London) on the 30th. A minimum temperature of -8.2 °C was recorded at Braemar (Aberdeenshire) early on the 5th. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 on the 30th, 46.0 mm of rain fell at Liscombe (Somerset). A wind gust of 76 mph was recorded at Warcop Range (Cumbria) on the evening of the 29th. A snow depth of 22 cm was recorded at Whitehillocks (Angus) at 0900 on the 3rd.

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