March 1948: Warm, dry and sunny

[Weather-history]

March 1948 was generally a superb spring month, warmer, drier and sunnier than average as whole but unlike the saying, 

"it came in like a lamb        and out like a lion"        A 954mb low near Tiree

Fog was frequent during the first few days and it ended with severe gales.

Some data.

CET: 8.3C 

March 1948

Rainfall averages %

England and Wales: 54

Scotland: 88

Northern Ireland: 91

Sunshine % of average

England and Wales: 136

Scotland: 114

Northern Ireland: 119

A maximum of 23.9C was recorded on the 9th 

 

From the Guardian of March 1948

 

4th     9th          10th        13th    14th    24th 

 

25th     27th       28th     30th     1st Apr    

 

[LetItSnow!]

1947-1949 was generally a very warm period with frequent spells of notable warmth and heat. It seems as though the extremely cold winter of 1947 was not to persist for much longer. 1947 was generally a very warm year after March was through and this continued into 1948. Though the summer was generally poor, it contained what we now call a heat-spike on the 29th of July gave the hottest C.E.T. day on record. The autumn would generally go on to be mild. That took us into 1949 of course, and many of us know that was an exceptionally warm year with only March seeing any extended periods of cooler than average weather. This spell would last into the first half of January 1950 which proved to be very mild oncemore, but cold weather finally set in in the second half and ushered a cooler decade of weather, albeit with some deviations (summer 1955, 1959 as a whole).

The 12 months from April 1947-March 1948 average 10.78degC, an exceptionally warm figure and would rank as the third-warmest calendar year on record. Every month from April 1947 to May 1948 was warmer than average. In contrast, June 1948 through to October 1948 averaged quite cool (despite heat-spikes) but the warmth return in November 1948 and lead to a very mild winter.

1949 would go on to record a yearly C.E.T. figure of 10.64degC.

Edited March 4, 2022 by LetItSnow!

[Weather-history]

9th/10th March 1948