By Philip Eden

The recent trend towards wetter Aprils seemed to stall in 2002 and 2003, but last month�s copious rain has changed all that. Averaged over England and Wales, April�s rainfall stood at 49mm in the 1970s, 60mm in the 1980s, and 77mm in the 1990s. The mean for 2000-2004 was 83mm.

This April�s figure of 86.4mm was 38% above the mean for the standard reference period 1971-2000, and there were only eleven wetter Aprils during the last 100 years. Seven of those eleven have come in the last 22 years, emphasising that upward trend. In Scotland�s main population centres the equivalent figures were 80.7mm and 61% above, and in Northern Ireland 60.0mm and 5% above. There were some heavy downpours on the 3rd, on the 17th-18th, and during the last five days of the month when severe local thunderstorms affected successively Newcastle, Sheffield, Worcester, Wolverhampton, and London. There were dry interludes too, notably the week 8th-14th, and the period 23rd-26th.

A large swath of eastern England stretching from Peterborough to Newcastle received more than twice the normal amount of rain, as did parts of the western Midlands. By contrast, rainfall was below average in Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside, north and west Wales, and also on the north Norfolk coast. Prestatyn in Flintshire and Aberdaron in Caernarfon collected less than half the average rainfall. Monthly totals ranged 22mm at Prestatyn to 237mm at Loch Sloy. Percentages ranged from 45 at Aberdaron to 258 at Linton-on-Ouse in Yorkshire.

Overall, it was a rather warm April with mean temperature between 1 and 2 degC above the long-term mean in all parts of the country. The Central England Temperature (CET) was 9.5C, fractionally lower than last year, but there have been only 13 warmer Aprils in the last 100 years. The warmest weather came between the 23rd and 27th when the mercury climbed into the 20s C over much of England and Wales, and a maximum of 23C was recorded at several sites in the London area on the 24th.

There was a general shortage of sunshine except in southern England and East Anglia where some stations reported a small excess compared with the long-term mean. Averaged over England and Wales, April�s total of 145.8 hours was 7% below normal, but in Scotland the shortfall amounted to 31%. At Kinloss in Morayshire the total of 75 hours (barely half the normal) made it the dullest April since the station opened in 1952, and at Leuchars in Fife it was the dullest since 1961. Sunshine totals ranged from 75 hours at Kinloss to 213 hours at St Helier on Jersey, and percentages ranged from 52 at Kinloss to 126 at Herne Bay in Kent.

(c) Philip Eden