Record day of heat at the end of March says Phil
A scorching heatwave at the end of March gave us the hottest day ever recorded in this month in records going back in Leicestershire to 1836!
On March 31st 24c was reported by Dave Mutton the Leicester Mercury weatherman at his site in Cosby.
Dean Whittaker at his station in Hinckley recorded 23.3c the warmest March temperature the town has ever recorded while myself at Mountsorrel also broke my records at my station which I began 20 years ago with a max of 22.7c.
The exceptionally hot air had blown northwards from the tropics and gave many other European countries their warmest day too including in Germany which recorded an incredible 27c on this date.
Previously March had been much more moderate temperature wise with an afternoon max averaging 11c in Mountsorrel and night time mins logging 4c. There was just one air frost in the entire month at both stations with Dean in Hinckley recording a low temperature of just -0.8c and just 90 minutes of frost! The coldest day of the month was the 1st at a high of just 5c. The overall mean temp of 7.5c was just 0.5c higher than normal.
It was a dry month at both stations with 41mm of rain recorded at Mountsorrel and just 36mm logged at Hinckley a 20% shortfall overall. Sunshine totals were fractionally below normal too with Dave at
Cosby recording below normal.
Our sunniest day of 11.5 hours was recorded on the 31st. Air pressure was generally High during the month but a notable Atlantic storm gave us 9mm of rain and winds up to 50mph on the 11th.
The first week of the month was very dull with the first 6 days of 100 hours 10%
March completely sunless at Mountsorrel.
The 10th to the 20th gave us most of the months rainfall and it was often wet, windy and unsettled in this period. The last third of the month was generally dry but 6.4mm fell on the 26th and overnight there was a noticeable fall of small hail which fell in the early hours but was still around at dawn and many people mistook it for snowfall. Then came the remarkable heat at the end of the month that became the talking point of the months weather!
Many thanks to Dean Whittaker Hinckley’s dedicated weather man and Dave Mutton the Mercury’s weather watcher for more than 40 years!