If felt very much like late-Spring across a good part of the UK yesterday. With bright skies, and mild winds from the south-west, temperatures soared into the mid-teens for many. Several places reached 18 Celsius (64F), including Cleethorpes, Jersey, Hereford, and Harwarden. The wind direction was also favourable for high temperatures to be reached around the Moray Firth area of Scotland. Here, Kinloss peaked at 18 Celsius, almost 10 C above their usual March average maximum of 8.9 Celsius.

The UK weren't the only ones to benefit from the mild south-westerly winds. Many parts of western Europe have seen temperatures well above the seasonal average. On Wednesday, we saw a maximum of 19.7 Celsius (67F) at Basel, Switzerland (average 11 C), 20.8 Celsius (69F) at Karlsruhe, Germany (average 11 C), and the mercury soared to 24 Celsius (75 F) at Cazaux, France and Bilbao in Spain (against averages of 15 and 14 Celsius respectively).

In complete contrast, north-eastern parts of the US have seen a sudden return to winter. Storms that affected the Mid-West on Monday, swept their way north-eastwards towards New Jersey, New York, and Massachussets, but not before dumping 16 cm (7 inches) of snow at Dayton in Ohio.

As you would expect, the snow and strong winds brought the usual disruption. Severe delays occurred at New York's Newark airport due to around 12 cm (5 inches) of snow falling during Tuesday afternoon and evening. The snow is now expected to extend into Maine, with further flurries possible elsewhere in the north-east through to Friday.

Storms have also been battering Singapore this week. Despite the fact that it is the monsoon season, which runs from December through to the end of March, the rain this month has been particularly heavy.

So far this month, over 550 mm (around 22 inches) of rain has fallen, beating the March monthly record set in 1913. The heavy rain is largely down to a feed of very moist north-easterly winds off the South China Sea. Incidentally, this January was also Singapore's wettest January in 30 years - the end of the monsoon season must be keenly awaited!

Related Links :
BBC Weather Feature - Asian Monsoon
The Asian Monsoon - Impacts

Weather News from the last five days:
16/03/2004
15/03/2004
14/03/2004
13/03/2004
12/03/2004

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