March was a warm and wet month

March Summary

March was very simply a month of two halves as rain fell every day from the first to the 18th followed by 13 dry days. The rainfall total was 69.8mm being 10.3mm above the 35-year average. The wettest day occurred on the 5th with a total 13.8mm.

It was a warm month with the mean temperature 1.6C above the 35-year average and unusually both maximum and minimum mean were similar, +1.7C and +1.5C respectively. This was due to the cloudy nights providing insulation that meant the radiation from the ground into the atmosphere was limited. An example being that we only had two air frosts, -2.1C and -0.8C on the 26th and 30th respectively when the average for March is eight air frosts.

There were several warm days in March with the thermometer above average on every day from the 19th to the end of the month and a peak of 17.1C (+6.8C) on the 30th.

As well as the rain, wind was a major factor during the first 17 days with peak gusts of 46mph and 47mph on the 12th and 16th respectively.

During the last week, under high barometric pressure, the UV level rose to the ‘moderate’ level every day reaching 4.3 on the 26th.

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