Dry start to April

[Len Wood]

8 dry days out of 10.
Total to 10th is 11.7 mm.
9.9 mm fell on 1st April.
Looks as though dry weather will continue in South for the week up to Easter.

30 yr average for April is 68.6 mm.
Usually a relatively dry month but can vary hugely.
2011 14.8 mm
2012 142.9 mm.

[John Wilson]

Similar picture here just to the north of Nottingham. 1st April gave a pathetic 0.3mm, and there has been nothing since. My long-term average for April is 52.4mm, with yearly variation comparable with Len's - 6.3mm in 2011 and 155.4mm in 2012. The rainfall from a range of sites reported in the Times newspaper each day has consisted of a depressing column of zeros. I suggest we all wash our cars over Easter as we may get a hosepipe ban in place by May. Or is that not in the spirit of water economy?
Kind regards to all
John

[Richard Hunt]

A very dry start to April with only 0·1 mm recorded up to 1900 UTC on the 10th.

Today will be the ninth dry day. No real rainfall since 30th March.

APRIL 2017


Monthly Total: 0·1mm

24hr Maximum: 0·1mm -- Day 01

Maximum Rain Rate: 0·0mm/hr at 0000 UTC Day 00

Rain Days >0.2mm: 0

Wet Days >1.0mm: 0

Days with 0·1mm: 1

Days with Trace: 0

Dry Days: 9



Standard 5" Copper Rain gauge

[Greg Gruner]

Same here in Farnborough.
1.7mm in 10 days, none since the 3rd.
Also remarkably sunny. Although I don't have a sunshine recorder, I see that Reading University has recorded 93 hours of sunshine in 10 days, which equates to approximately 75% of possible sunshine.
Garden watering has started in earnest - very early!

[Richard Hunt]

Still a very dry April so far with only 8·8mm recorded up to 2100 UTC on the 18th.

No real heavy rain for a while now.



Standard 5" Copper Rain gauge

[Len Wood]

Only 12.7 mm here to 19th in my standard 5 inch copper raingauge.
Monday 24th looks likely to be the next possibility of rain, but the forecast charts don't show good agreement for any return to a westerly regime with rain bearing systems.

The garden could do with a wetting.

[Nicholas Gardner]

10.4 mm here up to the 29th. Forecast says rain for tomorrow but I don't expect a deluge. Last rain of any amount was the 1st with the only other day with any rain being the 4th with 0.6 mm.

Things are getting very, very dry here with the sandy soils now just 'dust' even 30 cm down. Grass browning nicely, at least it has stopped growing.

My driest April in the last 13 years was in 2015 with 14.4 mm.