Wet and mild first half, then drier and colder
April 2024 kept the soggy theme going and opened rather wet. 13.5mm of rain fell on the 3rd. The gardens were looking very waterlogged. On Saturday 6th April we were hit by Storm Kathleen, although not as badly as the North West corner of the country, but bad enough.
On 8th April 2024, lucky observers on the other side of the Atlantic witnessed a total eclipse of The Sun. Totality ran from Mexico, across the USA into the North East tip of Canada.
Here in the UK, there was flooding in the North East on some rivers due to the associated high tides and wet weather. The Tyne burst it’s banks on the Quayside in Newcastle.
The first 15 days resulted in 67mm of rain. Well on target to make April the wettest in Durham if things didn’t improve. It rained on all of the first 15 days. That was depressing when everyone is looking forward to Spring weather.
On 15th April a very active cold front moved South East, bringing violent squalls, hail and very turbulent conditions. Tornadoes were reported from Stoke on Trent and nearby areas.
The first half of the month was thus rather warm, with the mean temp up to 9.5C at one point. We were under the influence of Low Pressure until the 9th April.
Then came a big cool down in the 2nd half. Spring felt like it was going backwards, with single figure maxima and some ground frosts. This was all due to the High Pressure cell being in the wrong place for us, to the West, feeding cold Northerlies across the UK.
Rainfall eventually totalled 81mm, which is still high for April (around double the norm). The wettest day was the 9th with 21mm, and there was rain on 25 days.
Spring finally showed itself again on the last day, with 19.7C in Durham, although it was still a tad breezy. However, the perception was that winter hadn’t properly gone and spring had disappeared for the moment.
Monthly Averages
Mean Temp : 8.4C (+0.1)
Mean Max : 11.8 (-0.7)
Mean Min : 5.2 (+1.1)
Warmest Max : 19.7C on 30th
Lowest Min: 1.1C on 27th
Air Frosts : 0 (-3)
Rainfall : 81.4mm (+30.2)
Rain Days : 25 (+16)
Ave rain per rain day : 3.3 mm
See : April 2024 at Durham University