Scorcher

Some absolutely ridiculous temperatures on the continent today. Perhaps the most remarkable is the 30C at Freiburg in Germany. In the first week of April. As so often seems to happen, the UK has just missed out on something truly remarkable.

Cold and sunny at the moment. I would take a week of constant sunshine right now, regardless of the temperature. With the ever strengthening sun at this time of year, even 10C can feel quite warm if you get out of any wind. April 2021 was an example of this. I wouldn't be keen on it for the entire month though as nightly frosts would adversely affect plants.

raz.org.rain I think anywhere from Manchester City Centre southwards should be considered in a separate category to the rest of the NW- especially in summer. There's a massive difference even between places like Rochdale and say Altrincham or Wilmslow which are only about 20/25 miles apart. Greater Manchester can be 25C+ at times in summer while places in Lancashire like Blackburn or Burnley are barely over 20C.

Weather-history Really shocking. I just hope the pattern flips in time for May and we get a 2018 style pattern. Surely the law of averages suggests this pattern must break soon...

kold weather 2006 had a poor spring for the most part as well. March in particular was poor- cold and wet. April was cold to start with and unremarkable overall. There hadn't been any real warm days to speak of until that impressive short hot spell in early May. The 2nd half of May was also poor.

Looks like the first 20C is a long way off for the UK going by the model output. A big shame really as parts of the near continent have been well in excess of 20C this weekend. Several places in Germany reached 25C yesterday. With these ubiquitous lows near our shores unfortunately we will probably continue to miss out on the warmth while Europe benefits from the setup.

Weather-history Just shows how much wetter much of the region is than the flatter parts of south Manchester/Cheshire. Hawarden near Chester has only recorded 73.8mm as well. Interestingly, Hawarden has been considerably duller than Rostherne across the month, with 77.1 hours of sunshine at Hawarden vs 90.8 hours at Rostherne.

reef 10 hours of sunshine here yesterday which has taken us over 90 hours for the month. The average here is only around 100 hours for the month so we will end up around average with this morning being clear. I didn't expect to get anywhere near average halfway through the month. Who would have thought the current charts would produce the sunniest weekend since the first half of September...

Sunshine will likely be close to 90 hours here after today. We might not end up far below average in the end. 65.6mm of rain so not that wet either. It seems like NW England has done quite well this month compared to most areas.

55.8mm here so far so not that wet. It will probably end up above average but not by that much.

Today is definitely warmer than forecast across the CET zone- something to bear in mind. Quite a bit more brightness than expected across much of England.

cheese Agree about the urban sites. Something I've been saying for years as we are an overwhelmingly urban society so we should have more official urban sites to reflect that. Large swathes of the country have very few stations- especially in the west of England. The east does a bit better (south of the Humber) due to the number of former air force bases.

The law of averages (and recent history) suggests we are due a prolonged dry and hopefully sunny period given the incredible duration of this exceptionally wet and dull spell we're experiencing. Interestingly though this month hasn't been exceptionally wet here compared to average with 45.6mm so far. It may end up above average towards the end of the month but perhaps not by much. Sunshine is at 67 hours which is below average with the overall March average being around 100 hours. It's going to end up a dull month but probably won't break any records.

Doesn't look too much of a cool down to me now at all. Tomorrow is looking cooler but with that low looking like setting up to the W/SW of the UK next week we're likely to avoid any real incursion of Arctic air.

reef I did think that myself when looking at that list- some truly shocking summers in that top 10. At least 1990 had that record-breaking heatwave in early August.

CryoraptorA303 It's more common in spring than any other time of year for areas away from the south to be the warmest areas on any given day. The temperature of the North Sea is pretty irrelevant if it's an offshore breeze and coming from the land. Same goes for areas on the western coasts of Merseyside and Lancashire. Places like Crosby and Blackpool can see some surprisingly high temps in spring despite the Irish Sea being cold when the breeze is easterly or southeasterly. Often warmer than places inland.

We're up to 49 hours for the month here now. Below average but not exceptionally so with a third of the month still to come. The problem is we may not add to that figure much over the next few days.

CryoraptorA303 Those higher temps across the Midlands and north are purely due to sunshine. We're at the time of year now where sunshine makes all the difference to temperatures. The North Sea has far less of an influence if the breeze is offshore from the south west or southerly for those places on or close to the east coast.

Daniel* 90s summers weren't uniformly sunny by any means. There were a few dull ones in there- notably 1993 and 1998. I think the trend is more recent for dullness so I'd be surprised if the longer term average is lower than the previous one.

Weather-history Incredibly impressive if accurate. I think June and September stand out as a bit suspect though.

B87 What was your annual total in 2003?

CryoraptorA303 I don't think 2000 hours at Morecambe is impossible. Improbable yes but it is one of the sunnier locations in the north. As we saw in 2018 Morecambe can record extremely sunny streaks over a week or so due to the coastal location. You would need a 2020 style spring followed by a 2003/1995 style summer and then a sunny autumn. I think the main issue in the UK is getting consecutive sunny months and we are always vulnerable to extremely dull winter months that would limit the annual total.

Weather-history They do seem high but over 2000 hours is possible in theory given some places in Scandinavia record those sorts of figures (Stockholm is remarkably sunny given its latitude). Terminal Moraine's figures seem a bit low for all time records. Bognor Regis averages around the 1900 mark so in a sunny year you'd expect 2000 hours to be exceeded easily. The sunniest years must have gone well past that?

Arctic Hare We are certainly close to the bottom of the table. Lima is pretty similar to parts of Western Scotland and Northern Ireland based on that figure. I know there a few cities in China that are also under the 1500 mark. Chongqing is the dullest I believe.

Weather-history There aren't many other heavily populated areas of the world that could possibly record such poor sunshine stats. I certainly can't think of any. There aren't too many densely populated areas globally that average less than 1500 hours annually. Yet we must be well below that for the last 12 months.