March really was a month of two halves. Northerly winds prevailed until the 13th bringing persistently cold weather and some heavy snowfalls to eastern districts, but from the 15th onwards southerlies delivered some abnormally high temperatures. Averaged nationally, the first half of March was the coldest since 1996 (the first week was actually the coldest since 1971), and the second half was the warmest since 1938.

The warmer days from mid-month onwards more than offset the cold start, and the mean monthly temperature was everywhere between 0.5 to 1.5 degC above the average for the standard reference period of 1971-2000. In the last 100 years there have been only 19 warmer Marches although 11 of these have occurred in the last 15 years. Average afternoon maximum temperature ranged from 11.9ºC at Barnstaple in Devon to 6.5ºC at Lerwick in Shetland, while average overnight minimum temperature varied between 7.1ºC at St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly and 1.3ºC at Braemar in Aberdeenshire.

There were many noteworthy individual temperatures. The minimum of –11.5ºC at Boughton-under-Blean near Canterbury early on the 4th was the lowest anywhere in southern England in March since 1970, while the maximum of 21.6ºC at Wisley in Surrey on the 19th was the highest March temperature recorded anywhere in the UK in March since 1990. The night of 15th/16th was abnormally mild, and the minimum of 12.8ºC logged at Ballykelly, County Londonderry, was within a degree of the all-time UK record for March.

Rainfall totalled 57.6mm, averaged across England and Wales, which is 24 per cent below the long-term average; in the last 100 years 38 Marches were drier, including those of 2003 and 2004. In Scotland’s main population centres, last month’s rainfall of 62.8mm was 24 per cent above average, while Northern Ireland’s 46.3mm was 21 per cent below. There were some notably wet days, and in the Strath of Orchy, Argyll, almost 150mm of rain fell in the four days 15th-18th, while Shobdon in Herefordshire collected 45mm in 36 hours on the 29th-30th.

At a local level monthly totals ranged from 21mm at Church Fenton near York to 227mm at Inveruglas at the northern end of Loch Lomond. Percentages ranged from 34 at Wilsden, near Bradford, in West Yorkshire, to 185 at Cromer in Norfolk.

Sunshine was in short supply practically everywhere, percentages ranging from 103 at Hampstead in north London to just 47 at Coltishall, near Norwich. It was the dullest March nationally since 1998, and it ranked 15th dullest in the last 100 years. At several places in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk it was the gloomiest March since 1984. The aggregate of 49 hours at Church Fenton, near York, was the lowest there for any month since January 2004, an extraordinary fact when one realises that the sun is above the horizon almost 50 per cent longer in March compared with mid-winter.

© by Philip Eden