The main feature of March’s weather was the long spell of cold, cloudy, easterly winds which lasted almost two weeks during the middle part of the month. The first week was also very cold thanks to a strong north wind which come straight out of the Arctic and which brought heavy snowfalls to northern and eastern Scotland; further substantial snow fell in southern and central Scotland on the 11th-12th. The change to warm southerly winds during the last week or so prevented this from being an outstandingly cold March.
The Central England Temperature of 5.0°C was 1.4 degC below the average for the standard reference period 1971-2000, and by this measure it was the coldest March since 1996, although that of 2001 was only marginally less cold. In the last 100 years there were 28 colder Marches.
The month’s highest temperature in the UK was 17.8°C, recorded at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire on the 26th. By contrast, the temperature remained below zero all day at several places throughout the first four days of the month, again on the 12th and 13th, and on the 21st and 22nd. The lowest maximum reading was minus 1.3°C at Fylingdales, North Yorkshire, on the 4th.
Severe night frosts occurred frequently, especially during the first week and again just after mid-month, and night-time temperatures widely dropped below minus 10°C on the mornings of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. The lowest reading of all was minus 16.3°C at Altnaharra, Sutherland, early on the 3rd. This was the lowest March temperature in the UK for five years.
Rainfall, averaged over England and Wales, was 87.1mm, some 20 per cent above the long-term average, making this the first wetter-than-average month since October last year. In the last 100 years only 23 Marches were wetter. In Scotland rainfall was 40 per cent above average, and in Northern Ireland 51 per cent above. The last week of the month was particularly wet, and at Capel Curig in Snowdonia 240mm of rain fell between the 24th and 31st.
Sunshine over England and Wales totalled 107 hours, just six per cent below the average. The equivalent figure for Scotland was 17 per cent below, and for Northern Ireland eight per cent below. The sun shone for an aggregate 156 hours at St Helier on Jersey, but for only 56 hours at Kinloss in Morayshire.
© Philip Eden