April CET

[West is Best]

The NW tracker is on 8.83 with a day to go. I don't suppose it's now going to move far from that - perhaps up to 8.85. Assuming Philip Eden's Manley figure stays at or a little above the 8.6C of yesterday it will be an above average month by about 0.5C or so against the 1971-2000 figure - a little more (0.7C) above the 1961-1990 figure. At around 8.7C it means that 5 of the 8 warmest Aprils of the last 20 years have happened in a row over the last 5 years.

[West is Best]

Just to update this, Philip Eden now has the Manley CET on 8.7C. That's before last night's cooler night so it will depend on today to see if it drops to 8.6C or remains on 8.7C. Either way that's officially going to be an above average month.

Someone mentioned three successive below average months. We actually had four months below average, but they weren't successive because January was above: so following the amazing record run of above average months up to October 2005 we then had November and December below, January above, February and March below ... and now April above.

Edit - totting up the figures if it stays at 8.7C that actually makes the last 6 months 0.4C below the 1971-2000 average, and even 0.15C below the 100 year rolling average. That's quite something really.

Edited April 30, 2006 by West is Best

[The PIT]

Edit - totting up the figures if it stays at 8.7C that actually makes the last 6 months 0.4C below the 1971-2000 average, and even 0.15C below the 100 year rolling average. That's quite something really.

My God the ice age is coming.

My guess at 9C wasn't too bad after all considering the run it had to make to get there. No doubt MR Data will bring some interesting figures out about this.

[Roger J Smith]

I didn't have to put up with it, but surely that was the most boring month of weather in recent memory? Not that we did any better here.

[johnholmes]

The mean here is 9.2C, that is 0.9C above the long term average for this area.following on from a slightly below average March at 5.4C(5.8C), and Feb was 1.1C above the long term average on 4.8C, January also above average on 4.8C(3.5C) with December showing just 0.2C above the long term average.

This ends up with a 5 month average that is just 0.8C above the long term average for around here.

I should add that the long term average is 1942-1995(Finningley) and 1997 onwards for Cantley.

John

[Weather-history]

Phil Eden has the April CET at 8.6 by month's end. It went down 0.1c today

http://www.climate-uk.com/index.html

That would make it now the coolest April since 2001.

[J10]

This just shows how mild recent Aprils have been, this has certainly not felt mild by any standards.

[Thundery wintry showers]

The figure of 8.6C for April 2006 (provisional) is equal to the average for the 1990s.

It is 0.5 above the 1971-2000 average, 0.7 above that for 1961-90, but surprisingly, 0.7C below the average for the 1940s.

As a whole, the month had a rather cold first third, but the last two thirds had temperatures consistently a little above the long-term normal. Thus, despite the lack of notable warm spells, it has come out at 8.6.

[Red Raven]

i'm runing at 7.5 average for April - a little colder than normal.

[West is Best]

The figure of 8.6C for April 2006 (provisional) is equal to the average for the 1990s.

It is 0.5 above the 1971-2000 average, 0.7 above that for 1961-90, but surprisingly, 0.7C below the average for the 1940s.

Hi TWS - also 0.5C above the 100-year rolling average 1905-2005

[Polar Continental]

My mean for Burton, the centre of England has finished up at 9.02c, although slightly above average, this April has felt decidedly cool, the above average figure is mainly a result of a long run of mild cloudy nights from the 13th, as average daytime maximums have been if anything slightly below normal here.

Paul

[johnholmes]

if I compare the values for April here I get this

2006=9.2C

2005=9.5C

2004=10.6C

2003=10.0C

2002=9.8C

2001=7.7C

2000=8.3C

1999=10.5C

1998=8.7C

1997=9.7C

This makes it the coldest since 2001, and the 4th coldest in the 10 years records I have.

John

[Shiny_Bottom_1]

Thanks John. Some interesting facts there. I think with what Nick says, if we had had colder nights (or more average), April would not have ended up that warm.

However, warm nights seems to be the bain of the last few years higher CET's.

[SNOW-MAN2006]

Thanks John. Some interesting facts there. I think with what Nick says, if we had had colder nights (or more average), April would not have ended up that warm.

However, warm nights seems to be the bain of the last few years higher CET's.

totally true. it is all this cloud cover because we are tending to see rain at night more often now keeping warm weather inside our atmosphere so that why we are warmer because there has been alot of rain overnight ~(well here anyway)

[West is Best]

totally true. it is all this cloud cover because we are tending to see rain at night more often now keeping warm weather inside our atmosphere so that why we are warmer because there has been alot of rain overnight ~(well here anyway)

It was certainly very frost-free and your point is borne out by the minima and maxima - the maxima being around 0.3C above average and the minima 0.8C above average.

It does make me smile slightly though when one or two people speak of a cold April. I guess a lot of this is about interpretation, but there are also some basic facts. It was above average, even against the more recent (and higher) mean. In the last three decades only 11 April's have been warmer than this one. It was 0.5C warmer than the average of the past 100 years. It may have been the least warm since 2001, but that's because over half of the warmest April's of the last 30 years have just occurred one after the other - 5 in a row from 2002 to 2006.

In some ways I wish we'd get back to proper springs - certainly in terms of rainfall requirements.

[Weather-history]

It was certainly very frost-free and your point is borne out by the minima and maxima - the maxima being around 0.3C above average and the minima 0.8C above average.

Having said that what frosts we had were sharp. Manchester had its coldest April night since at least 1981.

[johnholmes]

each report will show variations.

my own shows the mean of the min at 0.9C and mean of the max at 1.0C above the long term normal; air frosts 2(avge=4) ground frosts 8(avge=11), so not that much difference in that sense.

As to rain more at night, then mine does not show that trend.

rainfall occurrences are blocked into 09-21 and 21-09, although the Davis totals are 00-24. The day rainfall shows up on 19 days with 21-09 rainfall on only 4 occasions!

John

[reef]

Thanks John. Some interesting facts there. I think with what Nick says, if we had had colder nights (or more average), April would not have ended up that warm.

However, warm nights seems to be the bain of the last few years higher CET's.

Strangely that wasnt the case here. The mean minima was almost exactly average, while the mean maxima was 1.2°C Above average. The number of frosts was around average aswell.

It was the coldest (and first sub-9°C) April since 2001.

[The PIT]

April here was only slightly above normal at 0.6C. Only two air frosts and 12 ground frosts. Rainfall just below. To be honest not a remarkable month overall.

[A Gower Guy]

My mean temperature for April ended up at 9.58°c, which is 0.8°c lower than last year.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Sunshine distribution was variable- most of Britain had close to average sunshine, but central and eastern Scotland and NE England had a very sunny month, according to Philip Eden (and consistent with my own observations).

[West is Best]

Something's going on with my friends up the road ... they have ALREADY posted up the official April Hadley figure and it's 8.5C which is 0.1C below Philip Eden's Manley figure.

http://www.meto.gov.uk/research/hadleycent.../HadCET_act.txt

For those who enjoy these things, that will technically make April 'close to average' not 'above average' I think? (0.4C above the 1971-200 figure), although it is 0.6C above the 1961-1990 figure, so it probably depends which one they use.

Incidentally, and I love the way cold and mild lovers can put spin on things (!), that's the warmest consecutive five Aprils in a row for sixty years, since 1945-1949.

Edited May 2, 2006 by West is Best

[TEITS]

Something's going on with my friends up the road ... they have ALREADY posted up the official April Hadley figure and it's 8.5C which is 0.1C below Philip Eden's Manley figure.

http://www.meto.gov.uk/research/hadleycent.../HadCET_act.txt

For those who enjoy these things, that will technically make April 'close to average' not 'above average' I think? (0.4C above the 1971-200 figure), although it is 0.6C above the 1961-1990 figure, so it probably depends which one they use.

Incidentally, and I love the way cold and mild lovers can put spin on things (!), that's the warmest consecutive five Aprils in a row for sixty years, since 1945-1949.

Good morning Richard.

The 1961-90 CET for April is 8.0C so that would make it 0.5C above not 0.6C.

[Guest Mike W]

Well Phillip Eden's site has it a t 8.6 and the 61-90 is 7.9, which makes it 0.7 above the 61-90 and the 71-00 is 8.0, which is 0.6 above. Even if 61-90 was/is 8.0, it would indeed be 0.6 above not 0.5, basic mathematics.

Edited May 2, 2006 by Mike W

[TEITS]

Well Phillip Eden's site has it a t 8.6 and the 61-90 is 7.9, which makes it 0.7 above the 61-90 and the 71-00 is 8.0, which is 0.6 above. Even if 61-90 was/is 8.0, it would indeed be 0.6 above not 0.5, basic mathematics.

If the offcial April Hadley figure is 8.5C and the link below shows the 61-90 CET as being 8.0C then basic mathematics would make this 0.5C above.

CET