Photo: Field of Rape with blasted Oak, north of Lindsey Street, April 2020 (Roger Emmens)  

Weather news

It's April, so where are the showers?

From 15th March all the way through to 27th April, the weather stayed largely settled, dry and warm - in that period we had less than 4mm of rain, and the ground (and gardens and fields!) were becoming very dry. Not the ideal weather for germinating seeds! 

This was reflected in the temperatures - plenty of sunshine and often light winds resulted in an average daily maximum of 17.2°C and a warmest day topping out at 25.7°C, which were the second and third warmest April figures in Epping records (1979-2013). Overall it was the third warmest on record.

However, there were some cool nights as well. The short cold snap at the end of March saw the early hours of 1st April record the coldest temperature, -1.4°C, only the third frost of 2020 to date.

The weather pattern finally changed on 28th, with cool wet weather moving in, and the last three days of the month recorded 96% of the month's rain. The 28th was particularly unusual: not particularly as regards temperatures - a minimum of 6.0°C and a maximum of 9.5°C aren't exceptional for April - but because they happened the "wrong way round": the maximum was recorded just after midnight, and the minimum just before midday!

Here is the summary data for April.