|
Following
on from a dry and sunny February, March was even better with new
records set the length and breadth of the land.
A persistent
area of high pressure which has been with us now for two months
dominated the weather across Yorkshire and the North Midlands.
Quite
often when high pressure affects this country it is associated with
what we call returning maritime air - which has its source across
the warmer seas in the Atlantic - causing cloudy skies.
'Incredible
sunshine'
 |
|
March 03 was full of sun! |
But
March
was incredible for its sunshine, indeed March at RAF Waddington
in Lincolnshire turned out to be the sunniest since their records
began after the second world war.
RAF
Leeming in North Yorkshire had their second sunniest month on record,
and further afield Manchester broke their sunshine record which
goes back more than 100 years.
Temperatures
were also well up, although with clear skies at night we had a lot
of air frosts which prevented any mean temperature records being
broken.
However,
at RAF Linton-on-Ouse mean daytime temperatures were at their highest
levels since records began in 1972.
Dry
days!
 |
|
Allan Bolton's fantastic sunrise shot |
Perhaps
the most spectacular record to be broken was at Yorkshire's oldest
observation site at Weston Park in Sheffield.
They
had their longest sequence of dry March days since records began
way back in 1884 - 18 days in total.
Portents
for a good summer?
A frequent
question I am asked is does this weather pattern tell us anything
about the forthcoming summer?
Initial
investigation suggested that the rainfall patterns matched quite
closely those of 1993. This year ended up with a very wet April
and September, and a below average summer in general.
However
closer inspection reveals that the statistics mirror quite closely
1995 and to a lesser extent 1929.
Many
of you will remember that 1995 was a memorable summer when some
of the reservoirs were virtually empty. It also turns out that 1929
was also a good summer with excess sunshine and below average rainfall.
From
this point of view there seems to be certainly some room for optimism!
|
RAF Leeming had their second sunniest month on record
