Weather News
Some Mad March Days but also record temperatures
March can be a quite stormy month as the warming temperatures disrupt the balance between maritime and polar air masses. This March however was relatively well behaved and there was just one stormy spell of weather mid month, when from 10th to 13th nearby depressions gave maximum gusts of Force 6-7, and a maximum gust on 11th of 33.0mph, enough to bring down a dead tree at Lower Swaines. Unsurprisingly these four days were also the only ones to record air pressure below 1000 hPa, with a lowest reading of 989.5 hPa.
Overall it was a fairly average March, but in the last three days a sudden Spring-like burst of warm sunny weather gave us our record March high of 23.9 °C – indeed each of those three days beat the previous March high of 21.0 °C set in 2012. It was also just the fifth March in our records with no air frost.
March is one of our driest months, and this March was a little drier than average, with 35.6mm of rain recorded, compared with the long term average of 45.4mm. No surprise then that it was a relatively sunny month, with just one day, the 10th, with no sunshine at all. The sunniest day was the warmest, the 30th, with 10.0 hours of sunshine highlighting the white Cherry and Blackthorn blossom in our gardens and hedgerows.
| Measure | Unit | Minimum | Average | Maximum | Average min | Average max | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relative humidity | % | 30 | 80 | 98 | |||
| Temperature | °C | 0.2 | 7.2 | 23.9 | 3.7 | 11.3 | |
| Wind source (most common/highest gust) | Sector | N | WSW | ||||
| Wind high gust | mph | 3.4 | 33 | 17.8 | |||
| Rain daily accumulation | mm | 1.1 | 7.8 | 35.6 | |||
| Barometric pressure | hPa | 989.5 | 1022.7 | 1036.5 | |||
| Solar irradiance during daylight | W/m² | 165 | 863 | 529 | |||
| Sunshine | Hours | 6.3 | 10.0 | 195.5 |