Unusually Dry For April

[Milhouse]

The ground is exceptionally dry for this time of year. Its far from causing any problems though so long may the current dry spell continue.

[damianslaw]

11th consecutive day with no measurable rainfall here. Quite surprised that we saw no precipitation today from the cold front. Indeed the cold front was exceptionally weak bringing just high level cloud, this afternoon brightened up quite quickly.

Perhaps we will catch a shower tomorrow, however with the prospect of mostly dry days ahead, this month could go down as a very dry month, however, a wet final week could change that.

Dry Aprils' are not unusual, as I said they are on average the driest month of the year in the Lake District.

[snowlover2009]

see this is the problem i have with people over here, when they complain about the weather and it ' constantly raining '. Ive been looking at forecasts for parts of spain for instance and the 5 day forecasts over the last few weeks have showed rain or shower for madrid quite a lot of times and i wouldnt want to be there atm. people over here tend to go 'oh i wish i was living somewhere nice and dry like spain'. i hear it all the time, but spain is not hot all year round and its nto dry all year round. april has been pretty wet in madrid for example looking at the forecasts and charts. take this april it has been very dry indeed, but you probably get the odd few people still complaining over 3 days of rain through the entire month. they need to realise that many other countries in spring and summer get more than this still and this is good weather even for the uk standards.

i am worried however of this april being quite dry, the last few aprils have just been dry andr esulted in wet summers. last year was poor but better than 07 and 08.

can anyone recall any aprils that have been very dry and resulted in decent summers?

[MP-R]

can anyone recall any aprils that have been very dry and resulted in decent summers?

Apart from 2003, no. Though the first half of summer 2003 had the potential to actually be quite wet but we managed to get quite a southerly influence throughout June and a lot of July. The main unsettled period in that summer was around the last week of July then we all know what happened next!

[damianslaw]

Certainly shaping up to be a relatively if not very dry April for many. Can't see much rainfall for southern and eastern parts in the coming few days, the weekend may be quite wet in NW Scotland in particular but doubt much heavy stuff will penetrate south and east into northern england will wait and see..

Dry April's are not unusual, so far we have seen little in the way of sunshine and showers, high pressure has ruled the roost.

Hoping the rains don't suddenly arrive in May, and hoping this month isn't a bad omen for the summer a la 2007, I don't trust a dry sunny April unlike a dry sunny May which I believe is much more likely to result in a good summer.

[Evening thunder]

see this is the problem i have with people over here, when they complain about the weather and it ' constantly raining '. Ive been looking at forecasts for parts of spain for instance and the 5 day forecasts over the last few weeks have showed rain or shower for madrid quite a lot of times and i wouldnt want to be there atm. people over here tend to go 'oh i wish i was living somewhere nice and dry like spain'. i hear it all the time, but spain is not hot all year round and its nto dry all year round. april has been pretty wet in madrid for example looking at the forecasts and charts. take this april it has been very dry indeed, but you probably get the odd few people still complaining over 3 days of rain through the entire month. they need to realise that many other countries in spring and summer get more than this still and this is good weather even for the uk standards.

i am worried however of this april being quite dry, the last few aprils have just been dry andr esulted in wet summers. last year was poor but better than 07 and 08.

can anyone recall any aprils that have been very dry and resulted in decent summers?

I agree, people sometimes complain about our weather and how we don't get much sun and get too much rain etc, even now, but if I asked someone to tell me the last day that was not at least mostly sunny, I bet they couldn't remember!

It has been a pretty dry April so far here with 21.6mm falling in the first 7 days and no rain since. 13 dry days so far and it looks like staying mainly dry into the future.

[Derp Patrol]

I'm actually not sure if it has even rained here this April yet There will definately not be any rain in the next 6 days.. more than likely at least 10 with high pressure looking to increase its grip on the UK. I don't mind it at all though, the ground needs drying out for me for sporting reasons, I have to play on muddly, boggy pitches from mid October to mid March, and it's nice to be able to lie on the ground.

[Terminal Moraine]

It seems there's an increasing chance that April could end as one of the 10 driest months on record here, at least if the current model output is to be relied upon.

13.8mm recorded so far which, if no more rain fell during the month, would make it the 7th driest month in the last 34 years and the driest April since 1984.

It all depends on what happens during the latter part of next week as any rain before about next Thursday looks increasingly unlikely.

[damianslaw]

It seems there's an increasing chance that April could end as one of the 10 driest months on record here, at least if the current model output is to be relied upon.

13.8mm recorded so far which, if no more rain fell during the month, would make it the 7th driest month in the last 34 years and the driest April since 1984.

It all depends on what happens during the latter part of next week as any rain before about next Thursday looks increasingly unlikely.

mmm wouldn't be too sure that no appreciable rain will fall between now and Thursday in the northern half of the country and quite liekly your neck of the woods too. There will be alot of moisture in the south westerly every chance of heavy showers developing in central locations and more general fronts moving through early next week, only the south east looks likely to stay predominantly dry.

[Terminal Moraine]

mmm wouldn't be too sure that no appreciable rain will fall between now and Thursday in the northern half of the country and quite liekly your neck of the woods too. There will be alot of moisture in the south westerly every chance of heavy showers developing in central locations and more general fronts moving through early next week, only the south east looks likely to stay predominantly dry.

Have to say, looking at the latest runs, I agree entirely. There's now a good chance of showers on Sunday and an even greater chance of rainfall at the end of the month. A dry month still very likely but how dry is another matter.

[Guest]

We had some more rain the other night but just for half an hour as the front moved through. We are now on course for the sunniest April in 50 years here.

[Coast]

17 days constitutively without rain here.

[Terminal Moraine]

We are now on course for the sunniest April in 50 years here.

That's good going. Here, it's approaching 100 hours sunshine as I type but it's most unlikely to be sunnier than 2007 which had just over 190 hrs.

[Guest]

That's good going. Here, it's approaching 100 hours sunshine as I type but it's most unlikely to be sunnier than 2007 which had just over 190 hrs.

By rough calculations via WeatherOnline the sun total is about 145hrs so far in April. It has been sunny this morning until about half an hour ago. I think we've got 197hrs from 1962 as the target from the local Met-O records which go back to 1959; 2007 was very sunny but not as sunny (at 188hrs).

Given that we've got 7 full days of the month left after today and we can rack up 13+ hours a day sunshine at this time year then I see no reason why the record can't be beaten. I also see no reason why it can't be cloudy for the next week and then it's just an above average month.

[SP1986]

This dry cool weather is getting fairly tedious now in my mind, with not much hope of it getting any warmer and humid aopart from on 1 or 2 days, it looks any pattern after than will revert to this cool (well technically cold if the latest GFS is to be believed) and dry pattern

[Updraft]

I've been enjoying the sun recently but things are getting very dry and desperate out there in the garden.

[Ben_Cambs]

I've been enjoying the sun recently but things are getting very dry and desperate out there in the garden.

Well it does look like the SE will remain dry for about another week, but after that confidence is growing for unsettled Atlantic weather to spread from the Northwest across the country by the end of next week.

[The PIT]

A monsoon like 14.8mm so far here 12 mm fell in three days though

[Guest]

This dry cool weather is getting fairly tedious now in my mind, with not much hope of it getting any warmer and humid aopart from on 1 or 2 days, it looks any pattern after than will revert to this cool (well technically cold if the latest GFS is to be believed) and dry pattern

I know what you mean by this, but if you lived somewhere that doesn't get much settled weather then any extended spell of dry and sunny weather is welcome regardless of it being 12C or 22C.

[TEITS]

Just been checking my official Met O weather station and apparently we have only seen 3mm of rainfall in Peterborough this month and this fell at the beginning of the month. Now being dry isn't unusual in this part of the UK but 3mm is still remarkably dry.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

I wouldnt say unusually dry, as march-may is the driest time of year, fairly as expected I would have thought this April, be very unusual if april was wet

I reached 20.0°C today in the much warmer airstream, but gone cloudy now

[risk of sleet]

17 days constitutively without rain here.

A long time without rain

and very dry air

yet the pond still is fullish

and it isn't a pond

more a quarry

different this year

maybe

[Eugene]

This dry cool weather is getting fairly tedious now in my mind, with not much hope of it getting any warmer and humid aopart from on 1 or 2 days, it looks any pattern after than will revert to this cool (well technically cold if the latest GFS is to be believed) and dry pattern

Well i'm in two minds to be honest it's not tedious for ramblers as we need a dry countryside but as a weather fan i would like some convective possibilities, but the main reason i now want rain is the condition of the countryside its looking very dusty indeed now and rock hard so uncomfortable for walking, the pattern looks like turning cooler and wetter not dry as you say but hopefully a mixture of rain and dry periods which i think we will get as polar airstreams are nothing like horrid TM airmasses which bring the wettest patterns.

Edited April 24, 2010 by Eugene

[SNOW GO]

The Predicted thundery showers may give us all a soaking on Sunday though but this April yes did seem up here in Cheshire a very dry April with only one very light overnight shower mid month. Could this mean a Washout Summer? I hope not! All those further south than me, paticulary the dry south east probably got no rainfall at all this month certainly strange for April but I guess thats the Uk weather for you!

[stewfox]

This dry cool weather is getting fairly tedious now in my mind, with not much hope of it getting any warmer and humid aopart from on 1 or 2 days, it looks any pattern after than will revert to this cool (well technically cold if the latest GFS is to be believed) and dry pattern

The outlook up to 29th April at least, is it will hit 70f most days somewhere.

What garden or models you looking at ?

Another warm dry day here and mostly sunny