Weather and Climate summaries

Overview of weather across the UK for previous months, seasons and years

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UK last month

April 2026

April saw an unsettled start, with spells of below average temperatures and rain showers for much of the country. The fourth named storm of the season, Storm Dave, arrived on the 4th/5th and brought heavy rainfall to Scotland and Northern Ireland and strong winds across the UK. Showers and frontal systems followed, with gusty winds in some areas. Mid-month saw showers, occasionally heavy and sometimes with hail or snow at higher elevations, and some isolated thunderstorms. However, the second half of the month was dominated by high pressure conditions, resulting in clear skies, mild temperatures and very little rainfall.

The provisional mean temperature for the UK was 9.0°C, 1.1°C above the long-term average and the seventh warmest April on record. All four nations recorded mean temperatures above average, with England and Wales both recording their sixth warmest Aprils on record. There was strong regional variation in rainfall in April, with northern areas recording average to above average rainfall while southern areas were much drier. England provisionally recorded just 38% of the long-term average April rainfall, while Scotland recorded 117% of the average. Cambridgeshire provisionally recorded its second driest April on record, Norfolk its third, and Bedfordshire its fourth, while several other counties were in the top ten driest Aprils on record. Sunshine was above average across the country: England recorded its third sunniest April on record, the UK its fourth sunniest, and Scotland its sixth sunniest.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 26.6°C was recorded at Kew Gardens (Greater London) on the 8th. A minimum temperature of -7.0°C was recorded at Tomintoul (Banffshire) on the 23rd. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 UTC on the 3rd, 93.8mm of rain fell at Alltdearg House, Skye (Inverness-shire). A wind gust of 81 knots (93 mph) was recorded at Capel Curig (Gwynedd) on the 4th.

Regional values for April 2026