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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).

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:

Okay, I took a look at all cases of late April temperature drops relative to first fourteen days (only the warmest 8% of early Aprils were in first sample, granted they would stand a better than average chance of seeing a drop of 1.0+, just about the entire 50% below average first fourteen days would likely be excluded by seasonal trend alone) ... ... that leads to following table of all cases with drops of 1.5 C or more (a total of 51 out of 252 dropped by at least 0.1 C and 11 stayed level). ... YEAR ___ CET 1-14 _ CET 1-30 _ decrease 1778 ___ 10.7 ___ ____ 8.2 ___ ___ 2.5 1815 ____ 9.9 ___ ____ 8.1 ___ ___ 1.8 1884 ____ 8.9 ___ ____ 7.2 ___ ___ 1.7 1859 ____ 9.1 ___ ____ 7.5 ___ ___ 1.6 1906 ____ 8.9 ___ ____ 7.3 ___ ___ 1.6 1835 ___ 10.1 ___ ____ 8.6 ___ ___ 1.5 1981 ____ 9.3 ___ ____ 7.8 ___ ___ 1.5 This list adds only four cases (1884, 1859, 1906, 1981) to identify all drops of 1.5+, now working on a program that can isolate cases where second half of April was colder than Feb - march. I wouldn't be surprised to find one or two.