Remarkable month of April 1908

[Optimus Prime]

April 1908 had the most exceptional cold spell for the time of year (November 1919 and June 1975 being 2 others)

23rd-26th had probbaly the most exceptional snowfall of the century across southern England (beating the winter of 1947!)

On the 23rd low pressure sat across the eastern coast of England feeding extremely cold air down from Scandinavia. The initial snowfall was the night 23rd-24th. Very low temperatures combined with precipitation led to heavy snowfall. Strong sun partially melted the snow but heavy snow returned during the evening of the 24th. On the 25th low pressure lay over the UK but with the North Easterly component remaining, it was exceptionally cold for the time of year with maxima close to freezing. Still with precipitation and even colder temperatures a major snowstorm covered much of Southern England. Almost 70cm fell over the 4 day period in Hampshire and Berkshire. 40cm at Oxford meant it was the deepest snowcover in any month since February 1888 and there hasn't been a snowcover that deep since. Southampton had 37cm cover and a foot fell lay on the Isle of white.

Temperature fell below -12c at Edinburgh on the 24th-25th. Latest date a temperature below -10c has been recorded.

Overall by CET standards it was a cold month (very cold for April) at 6.0c it was 1.9c below average.

[Weather-history]

It became very much milder right at the end of the month and not surprisingly there was some serious flooding because of snowmelt.

The mild spell right at the end of the month raised the CET by 0.4C over the last 3 days,

[James weather Jones]

Fascinating, keep up the good work.