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In Absence of True Seasons We're right next to that small low barrelling down the North Sea today. Right now its raining with a 30mph NNW wind and the temp is just 6.6C. It certainly feels colder than most of winter!

This Spring is far worse than 2023 in this neck of the woods. In Spring 2023 all of the three months were generally close to average for sunshine here, but this year has been abysmal. There have been NO clear days at all and it has rained most days. Spring 2023 had 39 days with >1.0mm of rainfall, but at the half way point, 2024 is already at 32 days. There have only been 8 days in fact when rain hasn't fallen since 1st March. It has just been relentlessly mild, wet, dull and windy. Now we've got to the middle of April it has changed to cold, wet, dull and windy.

The median date here for the first 20C is 2nd May and the first 25C is almost exclusively June (19 times) or July/August (20 times). Only 4 years have seen 25C before 1st June. 1993 never reached 25C.

Azazel no, it was the opposite. The days were more above average than the nights. March and April were both dry and sunny, with 8.0C and 9.2C on the CET. May was duller than average with normal rainfall but was very warm at 13.1C.

Azazel Spring 2022 was warm, dry and sunny everywhere? One of the warmest ever in fact. This year and last year so far were poor ill grant you. 2021 was cold but sunny with close to average rainfall. So since 2020 we've had two bad, two good and one average?

Apart from the early-mid January blip we've had pretty much record mild weather since early December so it was always going to go below average at some point. It would however be nice if it didn't rain and was actually sunny. Both today and yesterday have had a strong wind and blustery showers.

If that came to fruition it would mean the first 15 days of the month were almost 4C warmer than the last 15 days. That would really be quite something in April, a warming month.

Yes, this morning was awful. Just 7.6C at midday with a gusty wind and driving rain. It's actually clear and sunny now and the warmest it has been all day at 9.1C. The wind is still very strong though.

Metwatch that chart shows it to be the polar opposite of this month so far. 2024 is mild, dull and wet to 2021's cold, sunny and dry. Both highly unusual but I know which I prefer!

54.3 hours of sunshine for the first half of April here. The 1991-2020 average for the month is 164 hours, so it has some catching up to do!

Awful here this morning. Cloudy, raining, a persistent 20-30mph NNW wind gusting to 35-40mph and just 8.1C.

Absolutely loved that month. Here it was the sunniest on record with 248 hours. Only 12 individual months all year round have been sunnier. It was the frostiest by far aswell, with 14 air frosts, which is more than any January, February or March since 1996. The mean minimum temperature was just 0.5C - 4.0C below the 1991-2020 average. Six days also saw snow falling, another record. It was our second driest April with 2.4mm of rain, just slightly more than 2007 (1.5mm), with just 5 days seeing it fall. For us, it was actually colder than 1986 with a mean temp of 5.7C (-3.0C), so the coldest on record and colder than 6 of the last 8 Februaries.

Where on Earth has this wind come from? We've just had a gust of 47mph which is actually the highest April gust in this neck of the woods since 2002. Its consistently 30-40mph aswell. Apart from that its a classic sunshine and showers day, albeit a bit chilly.

In Absence of True Seasons Still haven't hit 20C here yet and it doesn't look likely this April now. However looking through when years hit 20C first it isn't a bad thing here: 2012: 28th March 2021: 30th March 2011: 6th April 2020: 8th April 2007: 15th April 1995: 3rd May 1989: 4th May 2003: 4th May 2006: 4th May 2022: 14th May I think I'd rather it was in the second group!

Oh look its cloudy and raining again.