UK last month

April 2013

The cold dry weather of late March continued into the first few days of April. Temperatures did return to near the seasonal average as the month progressed, as the persistent easterly winds finally gave way to winds from a westerly or southerly quarter around 11th. Temperatures rose as high as 23 °C in some eastern areas on 25th, but it then became rather chillier once again, especially at night with some late-season frosts occurring quite widely on 29th and 30th.

Temperatures for April were below average everywhere. The provisional UK mean temperature was 6.3 °C, which is 1.1 °C below the 1981-2010 average, very similar to 2012 but otherwise the coldest April for the UK since 1989. The month was drier than average across most of England and Wales, with a band from Cheshire to Humberside receiving less than 20% of average. In contrast northern and western Scotland received higher than average rainfall for the month. The UK overall had 88% of average rainfall. There was 114% of the long-term average sunshine for the UK overall, with most of Scotland and eastern areas of England above average.

A maximum temperature of 23.1 °C was recorded at Faversham (Kent) on the 25th. A minimum temperature of -11.2 °C was recorded at Braemar (Aberdeenshire) on the 2nd. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 GMT on the 17th, 63.6 mm of rain fell at Lusa, Skye (Western Isles). A wind gust of 84 mph was recorded at Aberdaron (Gwynedd) on the 18th. At 0900 GMT on the 1st, a snow-depth of 23 cm was measured at Ballypatrick (Antrim).

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