April 2019 will be remembered for a combination of both cold and very warm conditions; the latest statistics show that the warmer spells boosted UK mean temperatures to provisionally 1°C above the long-term average when looking at the month as a whole.

After a cold, and in some places wet, start to the month, many will remember the exceptionally warm and sunny weather across the UK over the Easter weekend. A number of records were broken including it being the hottest Easter Monday on record in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Over the Easter weekend a total of 18 weather stations across the UK broke their April temperature records.

The Isle of Wight was the area with the highest average temperature, 10.2°C, with Middlesex, Cornwall and Anglesey closely following. The highest temperature recorded was 25.8°C at Treknow in Cornwall on 19th April. Scotland was also notably warm when compared to the long-term 1981-2010 average with mean temperatures 1.4°C higher for the month.

Map shows April 2019 mean temperature as a percentage of the 1981-2010 climatological average

Overall it was a relatively dry month with only Wales and Northern Ireland reaching average rainfall totals. England has seen particularly low levels of rainfall, especially in the east. East Anglia has received just 25% of its average monthly rainfall. The former county of Huntingdonshire was the driest county, with just 9.5mm of rain through the whole of April.

Map shows April 2019 rainfall as a percentage of the 1981-2010 climatological average

As well as being a dry month, April was a particularly sunny month too. The UK saw 14% more sunshine hours than average with only Northern Ireland receiving below average sunshine with 87% of the long-term average. East Anglia was also the sunniest region with 191.2 hours of sunshine, 19% more than the long-term average.  

Map shows April 2019 sunshine hours as a percentage of the 1981-2010 climatological average