March 2025 proved to be a notably dry and sunny month for most of the UK. Regional variations occurred because high pressure was often centred over southern or eastern Britain. This brought particularly bright conditions to much of England, while further north and west, more cloud frequently arrived from the North Atlantic. According to the latest Met Office statistics, March 2025 was the sunniest March on record (since records began in 1910) for England and the second sunniest for Wales. However, it was only the 13th sunniest for Scotland, and in Northern Ireland, sunshine levels were just slightly above average. For the UK overall, it ranked as the third sunniest March.
Many people have remarked that current conditions remind them of the famously sunny lockdown spring of 2020, when COVID-19 first spread. Much of the country has enjoyed clear and bright weather so far this April, including western and northern Scotland and Northern Ireland, areas that largely missed out on the unusually sunny conditions during March. The main exception has been south-western Britain.
Dry, sunny weather, with low cloud mainly confined to north-eastern coastal areas, is forecast to continue until next Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, more cloud might drift in from the North Sea to affect eastern England, as an easterly airflow with a longer track over the sea develops. However, other regions are likely to remain sunny and dry. By next Friday, it seems probable that high pressure will settle over the British Isles once more, bringing further dry and bright conditions to almost all areas.
There are indications that the high pressure will finally begin to move away during next weekend and into the early part of the following week. This could lead to a considerably more unsettled period, with low pressure dominating to the north-west of Britain. Nevertheless, at this range, there are no guarantees. While it is highly likely to become more unsettled to some degree, high pressure could persist close to the south and east in particular. In recent weeks, high pressure systems in these areas have often proved more resilient than predicted by medium-range models 7 to 10 days out.
In Gordon Manley's long-running Central England Temperature series, which dates back to 1659 and is now maintained by the Met Office, the 1961-1990 average mean temperature for Central England was 7.9. Between 1991 and 2020, this average increased to 9.0. Consequently, Aprils generally considered "warm, but not unusually so" in the 1990s, like those of 1995 and 1997 (both about 1 degree above the 1961-1990 average), would now be regarded as having near-average temperatures.
The Aprils of 2007 and 2011 were considerably warmer than any others in the series, standing out even more in the Met Office's UK-wide temperature records from 1884. April 2007 was 1.1 degrees warmer than the next warmest April in the series, only to be surpassed four years later when April 2011 was a further 0.5 degrees warmer. Most recent Aprils have also tended towards the warm side, though not exceptionally so.
A notable exception occurred in 2021. April 2021 was unusual: cold by recent standards and quite chilly even compared to 20th-century norms (the coldest April since 1989 for the UK). Yet, it was also very dry and sunny for most of the country. Last year's April presented a contrast – warm overall but dull and wet for many areas, featuring a long cool spell in the second half. Consequently, although statistics classify April 2024 as warm, the frequent cloudy, breezy weather and persistent cool period meant it did not feel particularly warm to many.
Correspondingly, lowland snowfall has become less common in April recently. Some weather patterns that previously brought April snow now tend to deliver cold rain instead. Snow does still occasionally fall in April: it occurred quite widely during the first half of the cold April of 2021 (particularly around the 6th and 11th) and also on 1 April 2022, following a northerly blast during an otherwise warm spring. Although some earlier forecast models suggested northerly winds for early April 2025, it now looks highly unlikely that any snow will fall in lowland areas during the first half of this month.
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