With the UK under unprecedented lockdown due to COVID19, did the sunniest April on record help make it more bearable for everyone?
The meteorological year starts in December which is why December appears as the 1st data point in the charts below. More information on the layout of the charts can be found in this post. Points lying between the upper and lower deciles are shown as open black circles, points lying between the deciles and minimum/maximum are shown as solid black circles and any month with a new record is shown as solid black squares. All data is supplied by the Met Office and can be found here.
As I explained in October 2018, the addition of a Temperature Range chart (B) means I update 7 charts every month so I rotate which 6 appear in the deck above and 
plot the 7th as a separate chart here. Since it is no longer Winter, Frost (chart G) is shown here since that is of least interest in these months.
How abnormal was April 2020?
Chart H displays my UK Weather Abnormality Index (Scroll down my May 2019 post for details). The closer to zero this 
index is, the less abnormal and thus more “average” a month is. The higher it is, the more abnormal the month is. When the index is over 100%, we can describe the month as unusual in some way.
The abnormality index was 145% in April 2020 which is the 3rd highest on record. This is due to a combination of record sunshine, 4th highest temperature range & temperature and 7th lowest rainfall on record. In other words it was a beautiful and very unusual April.
PS: If you bookmark this link, it will be refreshed with the latest month’s data. I usually post the update in the first week of each month.
Click the relevant month to see my other weather trackers. Alternatively click the Weather Tracker hash tag below this post to see a list of all such posts.
- Click here for the latest month.
- 2020 – January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
- 2019 – January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
- 2018 – January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
- 2017 – January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
For analysis of trends by seasons, please click on the relevant season from this list or the Weather Trends hashtag below this post.
