Scorcher

cheese A growing population is a problem for the reservoirs, even with the extra rain. I personally think it's irresponsible for the government to be encouraging further population growth on an already overcrowded island while not investing in new reservoirs and other infrastructure.

raz.org.rain Both years were miles better up to this point with a superb sunny February in 1998 and a very sunny March and record-breaking warm sunny April in 2007.

My garden was the wettest I've ever seen it this morning with a lot of standing water (I've only lived here since early January though). So I don't think there has been any improvement at all in terms of the ground drying out here. Lots of golf courses in the area still have holes closed due to being waterlogged which I can't remember ever happening before this late in spring. Saturday was a dry, breezy, warmish day here which did dry the ground out to a degree but any time we get a dry day, we get torrential rain again the next day and we're back to square one (or even worse than before). Very much a case of one step forward, two steps back which is incredibly depressing. Especially looking at the latest GFS run this evening.

Addicks Fan 1981 if the difference between this year so far and 2007 so far is anything to go by, the summer will be completely different to 2007.

Addicks Fan 1981 I feel like you're trying to prove a link with 2007 to suggest a similar summer is on the way. March 2007 was also a lot sunnier than this March just gone as well. Where is the sunshine if this year is following a similar pattern?

Addicks Fan 1981 I'm not seeing any parallels with April 2007 at all- other than it being warm so far. We've only had 13.8 hours of sun here up to yesterday. April 2007 was notable for high sunshine amounts from the start. This month is already miles wetter than the whole of April 2007 was.

cheese Not too bad (especially yesterday and earlier today). Not great for the start of the cricket season though- very little play at Headingley and none at all in the first 3 days at Durham.

MP-R That is close to what the latest GFS run shows- a slack northerly flow wouldn't be too bad if we had some blue sky and sunshine.

B87 There's no way you can say that. As I've mentioned earlier- one or two days above 20C and everything will be fully in leaf within a couple of days. And given things are ahead of where they should be now, I'd expect most trees will be fully in leaf by the last week of the month. There's another above average week coming up.

LetItSnow! I distinctly remember in May 2008 there were a lot of completely bare trees a few days into the month. Then once the warm spell started around the 5th/6th everything was totally green within 2 days.

LetItSnow! Definitely ahead of normal for this early in the month. Of course on the continent the trees will be more advanced after temperatures well in excess of 20C. Even one day above 21/22C will produce major leaf growth within a day.

B87 Even in the warmest springs there will still be a lot of bare trees this early in April. Things are more advanced than normal without a doubt. There are the really extreme years like 2012 when horse chestnuts were in full leaf by the end of March but that is the absolute extreme. Hardwood trees don't come into leaf until the 2nd half of the month usually and are sometimes bare at the beginning of May in colder springs.

Some absolutely ridiculous temperatures on the continent today. Perhaps the most remarkable is the 30C at Freiburg in Germany. In the first week of April. As so often seems to happen, the UK has just missed out on something truly remarkable.

Cold and sunny at the moment. I would take a week of constant sunshine right now, regardless of the temperature. With the ever strengthening sun at this time of year, even 10C can feel quite warm if you get out of any wind. April 2021 was an example of this. I wouldn't be keen on it for the entire month though as nightly frosts would adversely affect plants.

raz.org.rain I think anywhere from Manchester City Centre southwards should be considered in a separate category to the rest of the NW- especially in summer. There's a massive difference even between places like Rochdale and say Altrincham or Wilmslow which are only about 20/25 miles apart. Greater Manchester can be 25C+ at times in summer while places in Lancashire like Blackburn or Burnley are barely over 20C.

Weather-history Really shocking. I just hope the pattern flips in time for May and we get a 2018 style pattern. Surely the law of averages suggests this pattern must break soon...

kold weather 2006 had a poor spring for the most part as well. March in particular was poor- cold and wet. April was cold to start with and unremarkable overall. There hadn't been any real warm days to speak of until that impressive short hot spell in early May. The 2nd half of May was also poor.

Looks like the first 20C is a long way off for the UK going by the model output. A big shame really as parts of the near continent have been well in excess of 20C this weekend. Several places in Germany reached 25C yesterday. With these ubiquitous lows near our shores unfortunately we will probably continue to miss out on the warmth while Europe benefits from the setup.

Weather-history Just shows how much wetter much of the region is than the flatter parts of south Manchester/Cheshire. Hawarden near Chester has only recorded 73.8mm as well. Interestingly, Hawarden has been considerably duller than Rostherne across the month, with 77.1 hours of sunshine at Hawarden vs 90.8 hours at Rostherne.

reef 10 hours of sunshine here yesterday which has taken us over 90 hours for the month. The average here is only around 100 hours for the month so we will end up around average with this morning being clear. I didn't expect to get anywhere near average halfway through the month. Who would have thought the current charts would produce the sunniest weekend since the first half of September...

Sunshine will likely be close to 90 hours here after today. We might not end up far below average in the end. 65.6mm of rain so not that wet either. It seems like NW England has done quite well this month compared to most areas.

55.8mm here so far so not that wet. It will probably end up above average but not by that much.

Today is definitely warmer than forecast across the CET zone- something to bear in mind. Quite a bit more brightness than expected across much of England.

cheese Agree about the urban sites. Something I've been saying for years as we are an overwhelmingly urban society so we should have more official urban sites to reflect that. Large swathes of the country have very few stations- especially in the west of England. The east does a bit better (south of the Humber) due to the number of former air force bases.

The law of averages (and recent history) suggests we are due a prolonged dry and hopefully sunny period given the incredible duration of this exceptionally wet and dull spell we're experiencing. Interestingly though this month hasn't been exceptionally wet here compared to average with 45.6mm so far. It may end up above average towards the end of the month but perhaps not by much. Sunshine is at 67 hours which is below average with the overall March average being around 100 hours. It's going to end up a dull month but probably won't break any records.