Last night saw some of the warmest April overnight temperatures on record at a number of stations across Scotland and Northern Ireland. These were particularly notable given that they occurred during the first week of the month.

Warm, moist air drawn from south-west in the Atlantic resulted in a very mild night across much of Scotland and Northern Ireland, with some notably high minimum overnight temperatures on 5th / 6th April 2011. Several stations recorded their highest April daily minimum temperatures on record (see Table 1).  The very mild air was associated with frontal systems bringing heavy rain to western Scotland (55.2mm at Tyndrum (Highland) in 24 hours to 0900 on 6th) and strong winds, gusting to more than 50 Knots (58 mph) at Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, and Capel Curig (Gwynedd).

The highest April minimum temperature for Scotland is 14.0 °C at Diabaig (Ross & Cromarty) on 17th April 2003.

The highest April minimum temperature for Northern Ireland is 13.9 °C at Belfast, Newforge on 28th April 1994.

Table 1: Minimum temperatures (0900 5th to 0900 6th April 2011) breaking previous April records. (Please note that this list is not fully exhaustive.)