April weather

April started off cool with showers and longer spells of rain, bringing sleet and snow to some places, especially on high ground. easterly winds prevailed from the 5th to 18th, and between the 5th and 9th it turned generally warmer, although still quite unsettled. between the 10th and 16th, it turned colder with widespread overnight frosts.

The weather turned settled and very warm with plenty of sunshine for most between the 17th and 23rd, with the warmest and sunniest weather coinciding with the Easter weekend, producing a new record high temperature for Easter Sunday. However, it turned more unsettled during the last week of the month with strong winds on the 26th and 27th associated with Storm Hannah.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 8.4°C, which is 1°C above the 1981 to 2010 long-term average. Mean maximum temperatures ranged from 3°C above normal in parts of north-west Scotland to less than 0.5°C above in some eastern coastal counties, while mean minimum temperatures ranged from 2°C above normal in north-west Scotland to nearly 1°C below in parts of eastern England.

Rainfall was 71% of average overall, and was well below normal in East Anglia and the south-east and in western Scotland, although mostly near normal elsewhere. Sunshine was mostly above normal, except in Northern Ireland and south-western Britain, with 114% of average overall.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: a maximum temperature of 25.8°C was recorded at Treknow, Cornwall, on the 19th; a minimum temperature of -6.8°C was recorded at Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on the 10th; in the 24 hours ending at 9 am on the 28th, 58.2 mm of rain fell at Buxton, Derbyshire; a wind gust of 71 knots (82 mph) was recorded at Aberdaron, Gwynedd, on the 26th; and a snow depth of 13 cm was measured at Warcop Range, Cumbria, on the 3rd.