Sunny days are here again

IF THERE’S one thing that’s been pretty consistent about the lockdown, it’s been the weather.

With few rainy days, there has been plenty of sunshine and warmerweather.

And new research from the University of Reading shows that spring 2020 will be remembered as the sunniest on record, even surpassing some summer records.

The data, released last week, shows that there has been more than 610 hours of sunshine since the start of March – and that’s before counting this week.

This beats the 604.6 hours in 1990, which was the previous highest spring total since the University’s sunshine records began in 1956.

In terms of the percentage of possible sunshine, the sunniest month in its record is August 1976with 62%. The sunniest month in terms of total hours of sunshine was June 1975, with 305.6 hours.

Dr Peter Inness, meteorologist at the

University of Reading, said: “The last fewmonths have been unusual for everyone in lots of ways – but at least this includes the weather being unusually sunny. We have seen some recordbreaking weather this year already, but for this spring to even rival the sunniest summers on record is quite extraordinary.

“The cause of all this sunnyweather has been a proliferation of high pressure conditions to the west of Britain, with associated descending air and clear skies over the UK. Conversely, the Iberian Peninsula has been verywet this spring.

“Understanding howwell we can forecast these ‘blocking’ patterns and how theymight be changing is the subject of much active research, and we are lucky at Reading to be directlyworking on fascinating topics such as this, while also training the next generation of meteorologists and environmental physicists.

“In recent days there has been some discussion in the media of howweather conditions over the summermight influence how tolerable lockdown will be for all of us and ourmental health.

“Although there are major social inequalities in access to green space in the UK, this extended and unusual period of fine weather is likely to have been a big boost to many.”