April weather

April was a predominantly unsettled month with little in the way of consistent warmth, though it was more settled for a time around mid-month when it became warmer, especially over Scotland. This was followed by a return to rather chilly and unsettled conditions until just before month-end. Temperatures fluctuated somewhat, but averaged out to around normal, with Northern Ireland warmest relative to average, and with maximum temperatures a little below normal over most of England. The provisional UK mean temperature for the month was 7.8°C, which is 0.1°C below average. Rainfall was close to average overall, but with regional variations. Most parts of Scotland were drier than average but southern and eastern parts of England were rather wet, most notably in Kent. For the UK the overall rainfall was 97% of average. Sunshine was also close to normal overall, but with northern areas generally brighter relative to average than the south and west, giving 102% of average for the UK overall. The UK monthly extremes were as follows: a maximum temperature of 21.2°C was recorded at Kinlochewe, Ross and Cromarty), on the 17th; a minimum temperature of -7.4°C was recorded at Tulloch Bridge, Inverness-shire, on the 25th and also at Loch Glascarnoch, Ross and Cromarty, on the 26th; in the 24 hours ending at 0900 UTC on the 12th, 54.6 mm of rain fell at Seathwaite, Cumbria; a wind gust of 83 knots (96 mph) was recorded at Needles, Isle of Wight, on the 12th; and a snow-depth of 1 cm was measured at Poolewe, Ross and Cromarty, on the 25th.