April Weather Report 2011

Everybody will be aware of how amazingly quickly Spring has
unfolded this year, due to all the warm and sunny conditions that have
predominated over the past weeks. Significant too was the lack of
rainfall – just 12.8mm, falling on six days; the wettest day being the
30th. due to the thundery downpours that occurred in the afternoon. I
made the total 4.1mm, but other observers have recorded quite double
that  – always the case when you get these conditions. This fall had the
effect on the total rainfall for the month surpassing 2007’s  12.1mm.

As I reported last month, March 2011 had been the driest month since that
April, and I had to go back to August and September 2003 to find a drier
2-month total. Statistically, a dry April has usually been followed by a
wet summer; people living near Tewkesbury and York will not need to be
reminded of June and July 2007! Let’s hope for a good balance this year.
With the dryness came warmth, and the mean temperature of
just over 11.8C was exactly the same as that of April 2007. That month
had been the warmest April on record nationwide, so I would not be
surprised to learn that this year had surpassed that in some locations.
This year, the days were about 0.3C cooler and the nights, a similar
amount milder suggesting slightly less sunny conditions. The highest
maximum temperature of 25.7C occurred on the 23rd. In 2007, 26.0C was
reached on 14th. This figure was then not surpassed until the end of
August!  This year, there was one very slight air frost on 4th. April
when a minimum of – 0.2C was recorded. 2007, parallelled that with -1C on
the 5th.

Peter,  Pottlelake