A Mild April

By Paul Homewood

 

 

April was the 32nd warmest in England this year in figures going back to 1884, based on Daily Max temperatures.

In reality, as the graph shows all to clearly, April weather is highly variable here, with average temperatures running anywhere between 9C and 17C. Although last month was closed to the 1991-2020 average, this does not tell the whole story.

As the CET daily chart illustrates, temperatures stayed within the “normal” band, not going below the 5% or above the 95% values. However, there was a preponderance of warmer than average weather – weather being the operative word.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_max.html

A month ago, I published the charts below, showing that the highest temperature in March was not exceptional by any means. However the lowest temperature was relatively high by historical standards. In other words, the monthly average was higher normal not because of unusually warm weather, but because of the absence of unusually cold weather.

I have now updated the charts for April:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/data/cet_max_2024.txt

As you can see, the pattern is very similar to March – nothing remarkable about the highest temperature, but no really cold days.

We can argue about the reasons behind this pattern of weather. But what is undeniable is that is just that – WEATHER.