April was Britain’s sixth wettest month on record, with 55% more rain than average, Met Office reveals

In news that will not surprise most Britons, the Met Office confirmed that April was the sixth wettest since records dating back to 1836.

In total, there was 55 percent more rain than the long-term average, the forecasting body said.

It was also the wettest April since 2012, provisional statistics show.

Forecasters measure spring from March to May and so far the Met Office says we have seen 96 per cent of the long-term average for the entire season.

The spring has been so wet that both England and Wales have already received rainfall above their long-term average throughout the season.

The UK as a whole has received 96 per cent of the average spring rainfall.

At this point, we would normally have only had about two-thirds (66 percent) of the average precipitation.

As well as being wet, the weather was also dull, with sunshine levels just 79 per cent of the long-term average for the month.

Many areas exceeded their long-term monthly rainfall average, with Scotland having its fourth wettest April with 148.9 mm of rain, more than 60 per cent of its average and the wettest April since 1947.

Met Office scientist Emily Carlisle said: “April has been a continuation of the last few months – often wet, windy and unsettled.

“The April showers were present from the beginning of the month, with frontal systems causing persistent rain across the UK.

“Although a high pressure system moved over the UK on the 20th, causing drier weather, at the end of the month low pressure re-established itself, bringing more rain.”

The month started warm, especially along the south-east coast, with temperatures reaching 21.8°C in Writtle, Essex.

But temperatures dropped and remained only slightly below average for most of the last two weeks of April.

This offset warmer temperatures earlier in the month and resulted in a provisional average temperature of 8.3°C for the UK, just 0.4°C higher than the 1991-2020 long-term average.

Overcast conditions often caused overnight temperatures to remain high, with the average minimum temperature being above average (+0.8°C).

In April there were only 122.9 hours of sunshine, 79 percent of the long-term average.

There was only one named storm: Storm Kathleen, which brought heavy rain and strong winds to Scotland, Wales, parts of Northern Ireland and the west coast of England.

Paddy Graham-Jones, of Albert Bartlett, a major UK potato supplier, said potato fields have rotted due to the wet weather.

Speaking of one field, he told Sky News: “I was hoping to find a good potato here, but there aren’t any left.” They are all rotten.