April has been another one of those crazy months that we have experienced this year. Who would have thought that we would be 2c above the longtime average. The month started cold and then got hot in the middle of the month and cold at the end. What has made it a warm month is the high night time temperatures. The final CET figure has come out at 9.84c which is 2c above the long term average.
Here in Watford, I recorded 29.5c on the 19th which is the warmest temperature of the year, and one of the highest temperatures I have recorded in April since I started recording stats back in 1982.
UK Stats
On the 19th the highest temperature of the month was recorded at St James’s Park, London, 29.1c which was the highest April temperature since 1949. The heat was wide spread across the country with the mean CET of 17.6 which is the 2nd highest for that date since 1775. The lowest temperature of the month was at Tulloch Bridge (Inverness-shire) with -8.8c.
Over the UK, it has been a wetter than average month at Capel Curig (Gwynedd) on the 3rd they recorded 41.4mm of rain. At the beginning of the month it was very cold mainly in the northern part of the country where 18cm of snow was recorded at Nunraw Abbey (East Lothian) on the 5th.
Watford Stats
Some notable warm weather mid month, where as mentioned above we got to 29.5c but it has also been a wet month in Watford with 46.2mm of rain. With the wettest day being on the 27th with 11.1mm of rain. Our coldest night came on the 30th with 0.2c this was the closest we got to an air frost. There was no air frosts last month, which is what has kept this being a warm month.
Looking ahead to May
May continues the cool feel which ended April but there are increasing signs that the Azores high pressure will extend itself up into the UK and bring some warm and settled weather. Temperatures could reach 25c+ and further out the computer models have been trending cooler. There is a possibility of a northerly out break, but this is not set in stone as some of the models show more high pressure over the UK.
Summary for April 2018 in Watford
Temperature (°C):
Mean (1 minute) 11.2
Mean (min+max) 11.9
Mean Minimum 7.3
Mean Maximum 16.5
Minimum 0.2 day 30
Maximum 29.5 day 19
Highest Minimum 14.5 day 21
Lowest Maximum 8.4 day 10
Air frosts 0
Rainfall (mm):
Total for month 46.2
Wettest day 11.1 day 27
High rain rate 7.2 day 04
Rain days 18
Dry days 12
Wind (mph):
Highest Gust 18.3 day 29
Average Speed 1.2
Wind Run 808.1 miles
Gale days 0
Pressure (mb):
Maximum 1022.8 day 18
Minimum 983.5 day 04
Days with snow falling 0
Days with snow lying at 0900 0
Links
Met Office – https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html
Real time Watford Weather – https://weather.andrewlalchan.co.uk/
Flickr – httpss://www.flickr.com/photos/alalchan
Weather Outlook – httpss://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twocommunity/
March 2018 – https://blog.andrewlalchan.co.uk/watford-weather-march-2018-statistics/
