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Much warmer than expected here, up to 21.1C now making it the first 20+C day of the year so far.

Harry233 It wasn't the worst here either: wetter than average, but slightly warmer and sunnier than normal too. On the summer index, it came out as 15th best in 44 summers for us. I think the issue is all of the exceptional weather was concentrated into June and all of the worst into July. August was pretty middle of the road. I also think it would not have been looked at as so poor if it came after 2021 rather than a well above average summer like 2022.

Rather surprisingly the cloud has completely burnt off here and its clear, sunny and already up to 14.9C. Not having an onshore breeze certainly helps. There were countless days in the first 10 days of last June where it just clung on despite the stronger sun due to this very reason. It looks like we might hit the first 20C of the year aswell today, which coincidentally would put it between 2016 (5th May) and 1998 (9th May) in the table - both years after strong El Ninos like this one.

Scorcher I can only imagine the comments if we did. We only need a 13.5C May to make it a 10.4C Spring and comfortably the warmest on record. It would also mean 7 of the top 10 Springs in the CET series would have all occurred since 2007 (though May only needs 12.1C for us to achieve that).

Its gone from sunny to cloudy in the space of two hours. I wouldn't be surprised if it rains soon. All I want is two dry days in a row so I can cut the grass, but its looking unlikely now!

damianslaw The perception might be that its from warm minima due to cloud but its actually not. The anomaly is very similar for both (approx. +2.2C and +2.0C vs 1961-90). It has just been consistently mild/warm by day and night but with no real standout warm maxima.

WYorksWeather we're on what should be the edge of the band and its totally overcast here too. Annoyingly it has barely moved all morning. 13.3C here at the moment.

I must say, I can't ever remember a time with thunderstorms coming in from the East in the whole time I've lived here. Usually the North sea kills off anything approaching!

13.3 hours of sunshine today, so the most since 5th September. Previous to today only 30th March and 21st April had more than 9.0 hours. Such a write-off has Spring been so far.

Today is legitimately the first day when it has actually been sunny and stayed that way into the afternoon! Rather warm too at 18.2C.

Northern Sky Figures for here: April 1st-15th: 11.3C (+3.2C) April 16th-29th: 6.8C (-2.6C)

Usual story again here, sunny until about 11am then just 1.1 hours since. Just what will it take to get a proper sunny day? Its ridiculous this year.

13.2C and 72mm Warm and slightly wetter than average.

danm I don't think this weather is due to the SSW. If anything, its the lack of northern blocking or high pressure around the British Isles that has been the issue. We've spent months stuck under a trough dragging in mild Atlantic air. Only in the last week or so has it changed. It has essentially been a continuation of the rubbish we've had for 10 months now. I would argue the SSW wasn't responsible and didn't really amount to much as there hasn't really been much of a pattern change. It basically fizzled to nothing and nothing changed!

TwisterGirl81 Spain was drier than average in 2023. They had a pretty severe drought in 2022 which extended into last year: As for us, the image says it all.

Shunter There's no truth in it, its utter nonsense. Already 17.2mm here since midnight. Now up to 74.8mm for the month, 160% of average. That whole mass of rain is going to pivot back towards us soon aswell, so we'll probably finish the day north of 25mm. That's 10 months in a row wetter than average, or 12 of the last 14 since March 2023.

Scorcher it's been rubbish here the last few days, max temps of 10.2C, 9.7C, 8.0C and 9.6C, little sunshine, showers and a persistent raw wind (apart from yesterday when it was calm). 7 days of April left and we're already on 120% of normal rainfall, just 91 hours of sun and not a single clear day. Spring 2024 is making 2023 look good so far!

This was the warmest day of the summer here with a max of 29.5C. Unfortunately, the storms all missed us, it turned mostly cloudy in the evening from the cells to the west but we had nothing. The best storms of that summer were on 31st August - those were exceptional in this area. This was seen as a pretty decent summer at the time, but would now be the 5th coldest of all of the summers of the last 20 years. Things have changed a bit, its literally average on every metric compared to the 1991-2020 averages.

B87 We ended up on 1682 hours and similarly, June was responsible for the biggest uplift as it was 62 hours above normal. Strangely, January was the second largest positive anomaly with 103 hours against the average of 61 hours. SunSeanI'd just do the corrections backwards, so the older figures are corrected to match the current automatic recorders!

SunSean If I remember correctly its in the 6-11% range, with an average of around 10% - which was the initial correction applied, but it is a bit more specific now. Basically, the newer Kipp and Zonen automatic sensors have a standard WMO threshold of 120 Wm-2, but the older Campbell stokes manual recorders burned the measuring paper at anywhere from 106-285 Wm-2 (A. Kerr and R. Tabony: 'Comparison of sunshine recorded by Campbell-Stokes and automatic sensors' (Weather, April 2004, vol. 59,90-95).

SunSean I suspect Shoeburyness was closer to 1700 hours going by the metoffice maps. Not a patch on Manston at >1800 hours though:

The maximum today here was 7.7C. The last time any day in the last 10 days of April was colder than that was 25th April 1997 when it reached 7.5C. The date record low maximum is 6.0C in 1981. Not record breaking but certainly notable.

6.5C at the moment here under that rain band. A good 6-7C below average for the time of year.

August and April have very similar daylight hours, so the potential is always there for them to be similar. I would argue the reason is that the Augusts of the 1989-2006 period were abnormally above trend just as Aprils recently have been. There are similar anomalies elsewhere. Here May is on average a sunnier month than June when June has longer days.

richie3846 Yes, 2022 for example didn't have 4 months with 200+hours at Heathrow but was a very sunny year, as was 2020. Years where all four months that average over 200 hours actually manage to reach it are always going to be a rarity.