Author: Eric Gilbert

Although maximum temperatures have recovered a little from the very cool day on the 26th, yesterday produced a peak of 12.6C, which is 1.5C below the mean for late April. Winds backing into a westerly direction, rather than from a northerly quarter, brought the small improvement. However, the total hours of sunshine have increased again with 9.43 hours yesterday making a total for the month of over 172 hours.
The modest rainfall this week has brought the total for April to 17.5mm, which is only 28.5% of the long-term average.

With the cold front having passed through yesterday the flow of much colder air meant that the maximum was 11.7C by late afternoon, almost 3C below the average for late April. Overnight there was an air frost when the thermometer dropped to -1.2C.
After days when strong sunshine totals were into double figures the last two days did not reach a complete hour.

After the brief period with winds from a southerly quarter, early this morning the wind veered back into a cooler northerly quarter. However, for gardeners, the past twenty four hours brought 7.9mm of welcome rainfall taking the total for month to 17.3mm when the April mean is 61.3mm.
Although the UV value yesterday reached ‘high’, the total hours of strong sunshine was 0.74 compared to the double figure totals of last week.

The minimal light rain that fell in the last twenty-four hours totalled 2.8mm bringing the total for April to 9.4mm, the 31-year average is 61.4mm. With winds now in a southerly quarter and cloud cover overnight the temperature at 0800 was 10.7C the warmest morning for several months. The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm was 11.7C, the warmest since the middle of November.

There have only been three days this month when the wind has not come from a north-easterly quarter. Yesterday, as the pressure continued to drop, the wind veered into a more southerly direction. However, another cold night followed with a minimum of 2.2C.
We have just enjoyed thirteen consecutively dry days and a total of 153 hours of strong sunshine this month, yesterday’s total being a down on previous days with 9.64 hours.