March 2022 - Record breaking sunshine as high pressure lingered

March 2022 has been dry and very sunny. High pressure brought a lengthy spell of settled, fine weather across the UK and also Ireland. Scotland and Northern Ireland each recorded their sunniest March on record (Met Office records back to 1919). Northern Ireland saw a huge 90% more sunshine than average. Met Eireann said that March 2022 was “mild, dry and very sunny”. Dublin airport saw its highest hourly sunshine total in its digital records, reaching back 81 years, and the second highest monthly sunshine at any sunshine station.

The UK had its sunniest March since 1929 and it's second sunniest overall. Scotland saw 64% more sunshine than usual and England it's second sunniest March on record, Wales it's fifth. The clear skies allowed lots of warm, spring sunshine by day but that soon radiated away after dark. Away into the night skies and temperatures fell. Northern Britain and Northern Ireland had cold nights particularly by the end of the month as chilly Arctic air took hold. There were more frosts than usual for Co. Fermanagh and Tyrone, north and NE mainland Scotland and around the Solway Firth.

For March and April, the air mass can make a huge difference in how the day feels in the shade or wind and by night. The sunshine strengthens and can make you feel warm or behind glass but in a colder flow it can feel really chilly.  A few places reached over 20C.  20.8C was recorded in London on 23rd March although the all-time March record is several degrees higher at 25.6C from 1968 in Cambridgeshire.

The start of the month was cold with snow for Scotland. By mid-month Western Europe was covered with Saharan dust which reached southern Britain too and as a flow from the continent set in, air quality declined dramatically. There were light winds, the slowly descending air, sunshine and imported particulate air pollution adding to local emissions.

At times there was fog or low cloud off the cool North Sea but still large areas with clear skies and sunshine. Then the cold Arctic air took hold and there were ice warnings with flurries of snow for many parts of the UK and a decent covering for northern Scotland and higher ground in Kent at the very end of the month. The 20 Celsius highs of the previous week were soon forgotten as it felt raw in the wind.

The high pressure had done its job well, shielding the UK from incoming Atlantic lows and keeping the unsettled weather at bay. Also, the winds were often light. Scotland and Wales only saw 50% of their March average rainfall, Northern Ireland 57% and England not as dry but still only 72% of average. So again, another stagnating weather pattern leading to record-breaking monthly values.