Following a March declared by the Met Office to be the sunniest on record for our region, once again they announced that April was also the sunniest recorded.

Our records reflected this, and although we only have two years of detailed sunshine records, this April with a total of 212.0 hours of sunshine was almost double last year’s 118.1 hours. The majority of days had sunshine for more than half the daylight hours, and only one day had no sun at all.

No surprise then to find that high pressure dominated. The highest pressure, and the average, were both above the long term average, though not excessively so. There was one period of low pressure mid month, with a low almost exactly the average low for April, and this coincided with our wettest and windiest days.

It was surprising then to find that the total rainfall for the month, 41.4mm, wasn’t that far below the average for April of 48.9mm. In fact it rained on only four days in the month – the second fewest April days in our 41 years of records – but when it rained, it rained! The wettest day was the 15th, no surprise that’s the one day with no sunshine, with 23.4mm, the fourth wettest April day in our records.

With all that sunshine, you might expect the temperatures to be on the warm side, and so it proved. Despite a persistent easterly wind, temperatures responded and this April had the fourth warmest mean temperature in our records, at 11.1°C against the long term average of 9.2°C. The highest temperature of the month came on the last day with 24.3°C, our fourth warmest April day on record, and the lowest of the month was 2.3°C on the 8th, the third warmest monthly minimum on record. This April was the 11th April in our records when the temperature never fell below zero – the mean ‘last frost’ date in our records is 5th April.

The wind rose diagram for the main wind directions of the month is particularly telling, with a strong bias for winds of an easterly origin. This is the effect of a static blocking high pressure stationed to our north with the winds coming round its southern flank from continental Europe.

The settled weather was reflected in lighter than average wind strength, with the maximum gust for the month of 29mph (force 6) in the early hours of the 16th as that depression cleared away.

With high pressure and settled conditions re-established at the end of the month, will May prove to be another warm, dry month, or will the pattern break down? Find out here next month!