The Weather of April 2004

[johnholmes]

Hi

Hope its ok to start a new thread.

April 2004 in this area may be the one of the warmest ever recorded. The mean temperature was 10.6C which, so far as I can tell, has only been beaten once, way back in 1943 with 11.2C.

Other figures are avge Max=15.3C, avge Min=6.0C

days with rain=16(average=14)

days with snow=1(average=2 falling and 1 lying)

days with air frost=1(average=4)

days with ground frost=2(average=11)

anyone else had much higher temps than usual?

jh

[Thundery wintry showers]

The April of 2004 looks like having a CET of around 9.6 to 10.0C, which is unusually high, but there were a few warmer Aprils (if I remember rightly) in the 1940s, and another in 1987.

[paul tall]

My mean was 9.3c, which is 2c warmer than the 1971-2000 average for Durham. I expect the CET will be about 2c up as well.

My average max was 12.6c, average min was 6.0c. Rainfall was 73mm which is 21mm above the 1971-2000 Durham average. So warmer and wetter than usual.

[Andy Bown]

My stats for April as follows

Average max = 13.3c (highest 24c on 25th)

Average min = 5.3c (lowest -1c on 9th)

Mean = 9.3c

Dry days = 13

Precipitation days = 17 (inc hail on 4 days)

[Thundery wintry showers]

Looking at Paul's stats, those statistics are particularly interesting given that the 1961-90 average for the main Durham University site were (I think) maximum 11.0C, minimum 3.1C.

That means that the mean minima were particularly exceptional, as most warm Aprils tend to have high maxima relative to minima. I wouldn't be surprised if, by measure of night minimum temperature, this April was the warmest on record at Durham.

[paul tall]

Very exceptional, but Britain is in a warming trend.

You can get the 1961-1990 stats for Durham and the 1971-2000 stats for Durham from the Met Office site. Durham is only 12 miles from me and at a similar distance from the coast and similar altitude, so those figures are very representative for my town too. As I have only been recording for 4 months, I look to the Durham figures for a comparison.

Interestingly the 1961-1990 April averages are.....

Max 11.0c

Min 3.1c

Mean 7.0c

1971-2000......

Max 11.3c

Min 3.3c

Mean 7.2c

So you can see Durham has warmed with the most up to date average. Some of the other months, particularly January, July and August there is an even more appreciable warming. I'm not sure if its down to global warming (the 90's was a warm decade) or due to the fact that the 60's (a cold decade) have gone from the latest averages, but whichever way, its there in black and white. I use the 71-2000 average because I feel its more relevant to compare that to the present climate than the 61-90.

But my mean this month is 2.1c warmer than even the 71-2000 average which is quite something. Like you say, its mainly down to night time minima, 6.0c is a whopping 2.7c above the 1971-2000 night time average. Compare that to the daytime max of 12.6c, which is still a very respectable 1.3c up.

Every month this year has been at least 1c up, apart from March which was 0.8c up.....all down to high night time minimums.

We only had 1 day air frost in April, compared to the average of 4.3.

[paul tall]

Actually, if you visit my site, click "Archives", then "April" you can see the full monthly report, with all of the night time minimums.....its plain to see just how unusual a month it was.

The 1971-2000 Durham averages can be found at http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averag...tes/durham.html

[paul tall]

In fact, my April minimum of 6.0c was warmer than the Durham 1971-2000 MAY average of 5.7c :shock:

[Thundery wintry showers]

Yes, it certainly was unusual! It seems to me (and this appeared to be the case when I was in Tyneside during the first three weeks of the month, albeit on the coast), that the cold interludes were characterised by cloudy nights, keeping the mean minimum near or above the long-term normal even during these periods. It is particularly unusual for April to have substantially higher minima than the preceding October!

Also, we only had two cold spells (at both ends of the month) and they seemed very half-hearted, with the really cold Arctic air not reaching the UK, while there were three notable southerly incursions with air of tropical origin, so it would appear that there was a synoptic input here.

Looking at the daily weather observations, it doesn't appear to have been a particularly sunny month in the region either (it also seemed that way on Tyneside), which would partly help to explain the high minima relative to maxima as well.

Incidentally, the monthly average figures do seem to be similar to those recorded at the Durham site on Weather Log, so I think the use of 1971-2000 Durham averages as the comparison point is well justified.

[paul tall]

Weather Log? Whats that then? Which averages on weather log?

[paul tall]

And yes April was a cloudy month. Theres is a site in Copley which measures sunshine as well as everything else. Its about 15 miles west of me. Anyway, they only recorded about 70% of the average April sunshine.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Weather Log is a monthly series of weather statistics that comes with the journal Weather. It contains monthly data for 21 stations in the UK, and 28 stations in Europe, and one of the UK stations they use is Durham.

[paul tall]

So what was the Durham stats for April then? I just want to compare how close I am to the Durham stats. Where do I get/subscribe to this weather journal?

I think that the 1971-2000 averages on the met office site will be from the same station that is in your journal.

[Thundery wintry showers]

The Weather journal comes as part of being a member of the Royal Meteorological Society at no extra cost, but it can also be subscribed to at a fixed rate for non-members of the Royal Met Society. http://www.royal-met-soc.org.uk/ has the information about the Weather journal.

The stats for Durham in April won't be delivered until the middle of June, as each journal comes with a Weather Log for two months beforehand, to allow for verification of the statistics, and time for Philip Eden to do a summary of the month's weather and anomalies.

I can, however, give the stats for Durham in January and February: in January Durham's max was 7.6C (+1.8 ) and min 2.4C (+2.2), while in February the mean max was 8.8C (+2.8 ) and the min 3.0C (+2.7). January was cloudier and wetter than average while February was drier and sunnier.

[paul tall]

I was 6.8c max and 2.2c min in January, and 7.4c max and 2.7c min in February. Surprisingly Durham was a degree average higher on daytime max's.

[johnholmes]

Hi Paul

yet another souce of weather is that from COL(Climatological Observers Link),

web site for person running it, Roger Brugge is www.met.rdg.ac.uk

they have a site at Westgate in Weardale. Not sure how far that is from you, height asl335m.

data for March gave mean mx=7.7c; mean mn=0.9; mean=4.3c(+0.5)

hope that is some help.

jh

[johnholmes]

hi again Paul

just noticed previous comments by you. Copley is one of their sites, i presume you have their data, if not let me know and i'll pass it on

jh

[paul tall]

Copley actually has its own website. I visit usually most days and compare readings. Normally I'm about 1c more, which is about right as I'm at 300ft and they are about 850ft.

The Westgate readings also compare well with mine. Westgate is about 25 miles from me and at about 1,100ft it should be about 1.5c colder than me at 300ft. Well I got 9.3c average max in march compared to their 7.7c that you said.

If you want the Copley address just say so, and I'll leave a link.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Maybe the temperature differential in January and February was just anomalous, as the mean max of 9.3C recorded in March sounds like it should be about what the main Durham site records. (indeed, Lancaster's mean March max was 9.2C as opposed to the long term mean of 8.4C) By midmonth I'll have Weather Log and will be able to compare.

[Shanice]

My Pollards Hill stats for April 2004.

Temps

April Max Temp Avg: 15.72c +1.03 on the Pollards Hill April Avg. (14.69) (Highest: 21.9c on 24th)

April Min Temp Avg: 7.13c +0.98 on the Pollards Hill April Avg (6.15) (Lowest: 2.6c on 11th)

April Mean: 11.42c + 1.00 on the Pollards Hill April Avg (10.42)

Rainfall

Rainfall for April: 56mm -5.95 on the Pollards Hill April Avg (50.25mm) (Highest: 14mm on 18th)

Pressure

Pressure Avg for April: 1013.2 +0.99 on the Pollards Hill April Avg (1012.21) (Highest: 1028 on 24th) (Lowest: 986 on 18th)