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A sunny start with a white ground frost and a low of 1.2 C (the first ground frost for over a month), rain on the way by about lunch time looking at the radar.

Horribly cold this morning, had to scrape the car window. Not pleasant in mid April…

Jack Frost doing the rounds at minus 1 this morning! But a beautiful morning.

Lovely frosty morning today.

It’s all going wrong this morning, by later week now a huge euro trough, very unsettled and some really cold temps. Would love to see someone make a positive about this pile of warmth….temps struggle to get past 10C for almost all from Sunday for over a week with some days struggling at 4-6C

It’s always the risk with weak high pressure initial forecast to our west that it regresses a touch more and we up under a massive euro trough and very unsettled - that’s what happened on this mornings gfs. Despite 6-7days away it’s a pattern that hard to avoid. Could be some very chilly conditions next weekend.

iand61 Yes, bright cheerful start not lasting the day. Rain feeding into the Lakes by dinner time, and to the rest of us through the afternoon. Keep an eye on the sky if you're putting your washing out.

Just watched the forecast and another weather front coming in from the northwest. certainly a change from the default southwesterly direction and something that we’d have sold our mother for in the depths of winter.

My main memories are a sunny and decently warm Easter followed by waking up to this on the following Saturday. the heaviest fall of snow here in a winter that started at Christmas and had already given plenty.

good morning all. Clear skies led to a chilly night here and a slight frost, -1°C.

-1.6°C

I scraped a bit of ice off the windscreen going to work yesterday morning and looking at the bathroom window, I’ll be doing the same again today. probably not an issue tomorrow though as the wipers will no doubt be clearing the last of the rain that looks like ruining the second half of today before hopefully a dry couple of days coincides with the weekend. Unfortunately it’s not looking like sunny dry though.

A chilly dry clear start Temp 1.4C, Barometer 1021mb rising raidly, Wind F1 Variable, Rainfall nil

-1.0°C it dipped down to

B87 I disagree entirely. Until about the 20th it was running warmer than an average April and there were many days in the low to mid teens Celsius including some days in the upper teens. No denying the month was springlike to me even if it was dull and wet.

1778 as already discussed went from near-record warmth 1-13 Apr to near-record cold 14-27 Apr, and had a daily average of only 2.9 on 24th which was broken in 1908 so it isn't in list of records now, but 22 April is still there (3.4 C). 1873 also had very cold days near 3 C not staying as records after 1908. I had a look to verify that no colder readings than 2.9 were broken by the 1908 and 1856 records. The 2.7 mean daily on 30 April 1945 is another case of a record low following warm April weather (record highs set 15-16 Apr). After 2.5 on 23 April 1908 the second coldest average was 3.2 in 1857 (also 3.4 in 1827). After 0.6 on 24 April 1908 the second coldest average was 2.9 in 1778 (also 3.2 in 1873). After 1.8 on 25 April 1908 the second coldest average was 3.2 in 1816, 1873 and 1950. (also 3.5 in 1829). After 0.7 on 29 April 1856 the second coldest average was 3.1 in 1782. The -0.2 of 19 April 1772 was not further ahead of 1.7 in 1849 (also 2.3 in 1793, 2.4 in 1838 and 2.5 in 1809).

Thunders Plenty of mammatus around Tittleshall

We will see, I think it will probably remain chilly most days until the 27th. After that is more uncertain, at this time of the year if you cut off the Arctic feed, suddenly easterlies can turn very warm but no sign of that yet. Looks like the chillier air may gradually dissipate but a coldish outlook overall, especially in the east.

EC 12z control has the CET finishing on 9.6C. Pretty close to the ensemble mean overall with the monthly CET dipping below 10C on the 23rd. According to this, first half CET would be 11.1C, second half would be 8.0C so quite a contrast.

12z deterministic runs, out to Wed 24 Apr (day 7) GFS can do one 12z ensemble means, out to Thu 2 May (day 15)

That's what facinates me a lot about April. The sun is as strong as late summer, so don't need a particularly warm airmass to see temperatures shoot up, but at the same time there's still a lot of cold air left in the Arctic from the winter so that can easily spill down to the UK, well into the end of month, such as that was the case in April 2016. Cold spells are more common than many ordinary folk may think for this month. Searching through the forum ( can be done like this: ( https://community.netweather.tv/search/?&q=april&type=forums_topic&quick=1&nodes=40&search_and_or=and&search_in=titles&sortby=relevancy ) and it seems April 1892 had the most insane warm to cold contrast: April 1966 had some potent spells too which if a repeat was to happen in modern days I think would be quite the shock. Also a few topics on April cold and snow falls in more recent years:

Roger J Smith I'm getting the feeling this could be one of them years Roger.

The 1908 late April cold spell set three daily CET records including 0.6 on 24 April; only 1856 (0.7 on 29 April) has any reading lower than 1.0 after the --0.2 of 19 April 1772. Anyway, I looked into the question of a colder second half of April than Feb-Mar combined, and found six cases: 1809, 1815, 1859, 1884, 1903 and 1989. (note, Feb-Mar average is a daily average, only one of these cases (1903) actually yielded a late April decrease relative to both monthly means, as noted). This was the top 12 of (otherwise) smallest increases, and the six actual decreases heading the list. Least CET Increases second half April vs FEB -MAR YEAR ____ 16-30 APR ____ FEB -MAR ______ difference __ FEB CET _ MAR CET 1903 _____ 6.0 ______________ 7.1 ___________ --1.1 _______ 7.1 _______ 7.1 1815 _____ 6.6 ______________ 6.9 ___________ --0.3 _______ 6.5 _______ 7.3 1884 _____ 5.6 ______________ 5.9 ___________ --0.3 _______ 5.3 _______ 6.5 1859 _____ 6.3 ______________ 6.5 ___________ --0.2 _______ 5.7 _______ 7.3 1809 _____ 5.8 ______________ 5.9 ___________ --0.1 _______ 5.7 _______ 6.0 1989 _____ 6.7 ______________ 6.8 ___________ --0.1 _______ 6.0 _______ 7.5 1938 _____ 7.4 ______________ 7.2 ___________ +0.2 _______ 5.1 _______ 9.1 1877 _____ 5.9 ______________ 5.5 ___________ +0.4 _______ 6.2 _______ 4.9 1849 _____ 6.5 ______________ 5.9 ___________ +0.6 _______ 5.7 _______ 6.1 1981 _____ 6.2 ______________ 5.5 ___________ +0.7 _______ 3.0 _______ 7.8 2017 _____ 8.2 ______________ 7.5 ___________ +0.7 _______ 6.2 _______ 8.8 Despite record cold 23-25 April, 1908 was +0.9 (Apr 16-30 5.7, Feb 5.3, Mar 4.3 avg 4.8), 12th place for smallest increases. ------------ So, it has happened six times that second half of April was colder than Feb-March average, but only one of those was colder than both Feb and March averages, the other five beat March but not Feb; of the other six in the list, with small increases, one beat Feb, three beat March, and two were slightly warmer than both.

Don Indeed they were, 1975 seems to have been particularly snowy, and 1981 had a massive blizzard and snowdrifts in and around the Midlands later in the month. Also Just spotted 1950, well before my time, that produced 15cm of snow in the south around the 25th/26th of April. April can be the most unpredictable of all of the months of the year, like early summer one day and like late winter the next.

snowray Those were the days!