UK Weather - Spring 2025

[Simon Culling]

Spring has started on a fine note here in the UK with high pressure firmly established over the southern half of the UK and the nearby continent, although it is begining to drift a little to the east. Unusually, it has been a clear high with mostly blue skies with the only cloud being a dying front (as it moves into the high pressure) over NW parts of the UK. Here in Tiverton we have had two sunny days to start the new season (both with a max of 10°C) and we should see this run extend to Wednesday before cloud begans to encroach or develop - it is not often we get 5 sunny days in a row in any season.

The clear skies have brought some frosty nights with lows even here in town down to -3°C this morning. Out in the countryside (and at the coldest Met Office sites in England + Wales) the mercury has been as low as -7°C, but it soon warms up (and melts the frost) as the sun gets to work after 7am. It is nice to have the daylight increasing quickly now.

Looking forward it looks dry and settled into the weekend and beyond, although as mentioned earlier, with less sunshine after midweek. Should also get a lttle warmer as the week progresses.

[Simon Culling]

The first five days of Spring were sunny here in Tiverton, although yesterday had to wait until around 10am for the fog to clear. Fog also formed overnight into today (Thurs 6th March) and has taken a while to clear - it has now (10am), but we have a Cirrus veil so the sunshine is hazy. However, I am not complaining as it is getting warmer - we saw 14°C yesterday for the warmest day of the year so far - and we should match that today.

Looking forward and high pressure seems to be the theme, but changes in its position will make a big difference to the weather. The high is currently well into Europe and low pressure will develop to the SW of the UK by the weekend introducing the risk of a few showers. But a build of pressure is expected over Greenland (still in the Kingdom of Denmark ) and Iceland early next week which will probably introduce a much colder north to north east flow over the UK. This is not nailed on yet, but the Met Office has it as happening in its 7-day forecast. Might be a bit of a shock to the system after the last week of mild and sunny weather.

The CET for March was 5.0°C (-0.6°C) up to the 4th and the EWR was 0mm also up to the 4th - monthly average is 65mm.

[Simon Culling]

The weather of the last few days has outperformed the forecast quite a bit with much of central and eastern England having three warm and sunny days (for very early Spring) from Thursday to Saturday and another one today (Sunday 9th March) when the temperature should reach 20°C for the first time this year. It only just failed to reach this margin on the previous three days, so a very mild and pleasant start to Spring for many. Here in Tiverton in the SW of England we have been plagued by a lot of medium and high cloud in the last few days with very little sunshine, but this cloud has thinned and broken up today and we have had our warmest day of the year so far (at 15°C) in pleasent sunshine. Forecast was for one warm day in the east rather than four!

The change to much colder conditions is still on track for the coming Tuesday onwards with daytime maximums down to 7-8°C, so back to winter here in the UK. Not sure if there will be any snow, but it might be cold enough Weds-Fri in the coming week.

[Simon Culling]

We didn't quite top 20.0°C last Sunday, but the mercury did reach 19.7°C at Crosby which is close to Liverpool, and quite a few sites recorded at least 19°C from London north west to NW England - in an easterly breeze, west is usually best. Since then it has cooled considerably wih maximums in the high single figures for the last five days and a few wintry showers thrown in for good measure. Despite the drop in temperature, these figures are only a smigeon below the early to mid March normals. Frosts have again been common at night and here in Tiverton we have had 8 air frosts already this month up to halfway (Sat 15th).

It will remain on the chilly side into next week and still not much rain in the offing. A gradual warm up next week, but there are hints of something more unsettled and wetter by next weekend - still mild though.

The CET for March was 7.1°C (+1.4°C) up to the 14th and the EWR was 6mm up to the 13th which is just 9% of the monthly average.

[Simon Culling]

The dry and chilly weather has continued with variable amounts of cloud. Yesterday (Tues 18th March) was a rare blue dome day here in Tiverton but a brisk SE breeze kept the max temp down to 11°C which is spot on the average for mid-March. The humidity was low (for the UK) in the afternoon at around 35-40%, so the dry air gave an extra bite to the 30mph gusts.

This month has also been very dry over all of the UK and here in Tiverton we have had eleven dry days and seven with just a trace of rain in the first 18 and a total of just 2mm for March so far.

The temepratures will rise strongly from today onwards with a taste of Spring for the rest of the week, but here in the SW we run the risk of a few showers crossing the Channel from France in the warm S-SE flow. Could well see the first 20°C temeprature of the year tomorrow in SE England. Looks to turn a bit more unsettled over the weekend, but not much rain in the forecast at the moment.

[Simon Culling]

The weather has remained mild and mostly dry, but we had a 'summerlike' storm setup yesterday (Sat 22nd March). The temperature did breach the 20°C mark on Thursday with 21.3°C being recorded at both RAF Northolt and Chertsey Abbey Mead in London. Many other sites in England reached 19-20°C on the same day which is quite early in the year - the average date of the first 20°C day in the UK is around 5th/6th April (1961-2024). Here in Tiverton we had a nice day on Thursday with plenty of sunshine (hazy in the afternoon due to Cirrus) and a max of 18°C.

Yesterday was dry here in Tiverton in SW England, but much of the rest of England + Wales had its first significant rain for around three weeks and as nentioned above, some noteworthy thunderstorms developed. A couple of seperate cells formed over West London around 14:30 and moved NW into the Midlands with the storms regenerating for much of the afternoon and well into the evening - and as far north as Birmingham. Observers in London noted how loud some of the thunder was and a number of positive strikes were recorded over the capital on the lightinng detector network. The storms missed most of the rain gauges, but a few in Northamptonshire recorded 20-40mm from the storms and small hail fell in sufficient quantities in parts of Buckinghamshire to turn a few places white for a time. This sort of setup normally does not happen until late Spring. Lightning chart for 12Z to 24Z yesterday attached - I would estimate a quarter to a third of the 15K strikes were over the UK. Note, the strikes on the chart just north of me were from a couple of cells that developed on Saturday afternoon (over Exmoor + the Mendips) but were too far away for me to hear the thunder or get any rain from.

The CET for March was 7.1°C (+1.4°C) up to the 21st and the EWR was 9mm also up to the 21st which is just 9% of the monthly average. Note, yesterdays rainfall not yet in this figure.

[Simon Culling]

The dry and mostly mild weather continues and this looks to be the case for the rest of the month apart from some rain spreading south tonight - we could get a few mm's down here in the SW in the early hours of Friday (28th March). This March looks set to be one of the drier months in the EWR March record for much of the UK. The temperature again reached a rounded up 20°C in parts of northern England today (where the best of the sunshine was), but we only managed a maximum of 12°C here in Tiverton as a Sc sheet mostly persisted.

Cooler air will briefly follow the rain through Friday + Saturday with a nip of frost on both nights, but a build of high pressure from the SW will prompt a warm up next week with plenty of sunshine on the cards. This year is reminding me a bit of the wonderful Spring we had during the first COVID lockdown in 2020.

The CET for March was 7.6°C (+2.0°C) up to the 26th and the EWR was 15mm up to the 25th which is just 23% of the monthly average.

[Simon Culling]

The dry weather continues here in the UK and it is slowly warming up again. No rain is forecast for much of the country for the next 10 days with mostly sunny and fairly warm days (for the time of year) predicted. Spring growth seems to be a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, although the lack of rain might start to slow this down a bit. The forecast for Tiverton has clear sunny days all the way to at least next Sunday with highs between 15-19°C, but as is always the case with such forecasts, the proof will be in the pudding. It is rare to get 8 days of clear sunny skies in a row in any part of the UK so we will see - it was mostly clear today (Sun 30th March) and sunny here in Tiverton with a high of 15°C.

We had a partial eclipse of the Sun yesterday (Sat 29th March) with about 40% coverage at maximum. It was partly cloudy here in Tiverton, but I was able to observe much of it - with suitable eye protection - and they are always great events to witness. Attached is a graph of the main elements of the UK electricity generation matrix and you can see the effect that the eclipse had on solar generation - it fell from over 7GW at 10am to a little over 6GW at 11am which was the middle of the 2 hour eclipse. The graph was copied form the National Grid webpage and the green line is wind, the orange is Gas and solar is yellow. The higher blue line is nuclear and the lower, biomass.

EDIT: The graph does not show interconnector power sources which at the time (11am) had roughly 25% of our electricity coming from Europe.

[Simon Culling]

The dry and sunny weather generally continues here in the UK, but those of us in the SW and parts of Eire did have cloud and rain overnight Thursday into Friday as a finger of rain moved NW from a low pressure close to Portugal/Spain - this area of Europe has been having a very wet Spring so far. The sunshine is back this morning (Sat 5th April) here in Tiverton and we should have another blue dome day and this looks set to last through much of the coming week - but with winds persistently off the North Sea, most days will not be as warm as they could be - SST's in the North Sea are still around 8-9°C. Subtle changes in the wind direction can move the temperatures up and down and this was the case yesterday with central southern England getting the benefits with a high of 23.7°C being recorded at Otterbourne - which is in Hampshie and just south of Winchester (where you will find, if you believe the legend, the Round Table of King Arthur).

March 2025 was the sunniest on record for England (records for sunshine go back to 1910) and the third sunniest for the UK as a whole. It was also a degree or so warmer than average and very dry as well. See the attached link to the Met Office summary for the month:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/n ... r-sunshine

The final CET for March was 7.9°C (+2.3°C) and the final EWR was 17mm which is just 26% of the monthly average.

[Simon Culling]

The sunny days have continued here in the UK over the weekend and should last most of the current week - it is not often that we get such a prolonged spell of dry and sunny weather in the UK, although perhaps this is just natures way of balancing things after a year and a half of mostly wet + miserable weather! The days have been pleasantly warm, but frost has been common at night.

The models are gradually coming into agreement with one another that the settled weather will depart this weekend and the Atlantic influence will increase, althuogh rainfall totals do not look large at the moment. This long dry spell has meant that much of the vegetation is also dry and we have seen quite a few (albeit minor so far) moor and heath fires across the UK - the rain will help to stop most of these.

The CET for April was 10.3°C (+2.4°C) up to the 7th and the EWR was 0.6mm also up to the 7th which is just 1% of the monthly average of 63mm

[Simon Culling]

The dry spell has well and truly ended here in the UK and especially for us in the W + SW - much of the eastern half of the UK has only had a little rain so far. It was very wet in the west on Tues/Weds (15th/16th April) of the last week with 20-40mm quite widely here in the SW and up to 100mm of rain on the southern slopes of Dartmoor. Here in Tiverton we had 30mm overnight in this period with distant lightning, winds gusting close to 50mph and the rain even turned to sleet for a time in the early hours of Wednesday - the culprit was a small tight low moving north from Biscay.

The unsettled theme has continued with today (Good Friday) being wet and miserable and cold - we have already had 10mm of rain by noon where it is just 9°C, and the rain will continue into Saturday. The weather is looking a little better for next week with showers rather than rain, but the 3-5 day forecast changes with each model run at the moment.

The CET for April was 10.1°C (+2.3°C) up to the 16th and the EWR was 18mm also up to the 16th, which is only 28% of the monthly average. The EWR figure does not show the large E to W variation in the month's rainfall and the total figure will grow quite a bit over the next day or two.

EDIT: The rain continued through Friday and is still going at 11am on Saturday morning here in Tiverton - in this 35 hour period, the PWS just up the road from me has had 51mm of rain with the temperature stuck between 9-10°C. Thoroughly miserable!

[Simon Culling]

The rain finished around midday last Saturday and since then it has been generally dry during the day with a little sunshine when it can get round the cloud. We did have a spell of heavy rain overnight Tues/Weds, but that is the best time for it to fall when most of us are all asleep. It is cloudy today (Thurs 24th April) here in Tiverton, but temperatures are around normal for the time of year - 14°C mid-afternoon. However, the forecast is for a considerable warm up next week with temperatures well into the mid twenties for many, so this will be our first taste of summer. The Date maximums for 30th April and 1st of May look under threat.

The CET for April was 10.3°C (+2.4°C) up to the 23rd and the EWR was 36mm up to the 22nd, which is 57% of the monthly average.

[Simon Culling]

Temperatures have been rising here in the UK and we had the warmest day of the year so far on Monday (28th April) with 24.5°C recorded at St Jmaes Park in London. This will be beaten today and the tomorrow with the MetO expecting a peak of 29°C on Thursday (1st May) in SE England. This is very warm for so early in the year and all this heat and sunshine is compounding the dryness - despite the recent heavy rain, which only affected half the nation, some places are getting very dry.

Following on the dryness point, this interesting article appeared on the BBC website that claims we have already had more land burnt by wild fires this year than any other year in the rather short period (2012-2025) for this survey. With the dryness of both March + April in some parts of the UK, we have been experiencing lots of small heath and forest fires, but most of these are either started deliberately or by carelessness. I am not sure if this short survey period can be seen as indicative of climate change, but it is a worrying trend - especially with regard to how these fires start.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m9gm3jwljo

[Simon Culling]

The weather here in the UK has cooled considerably in the last couple of days, but it has remained predominently dry. The temperature rose to 29°C in London on May Day (a record high for this calendar day), but much cooler air has filtered south since then and now (mid-afternoon Sunday 4th May) covers the country, with single figure temperatures in much of Scotland and eastern England. Not so bad down here in the milder south west - we have patchy cloud and plenty of sunshine and an afternoon temperature of 15°C, so not bad at all. The dry weather looks to continue through this week and the coming weekend with a gradual warm up to above average temperatures again. No signs of any worthwhile rain in the extended forecast either.

The Met Office have published their data for April and it was the sunniest April on record (which goes back to 1910) with 47% more sunshine than normal. It was also much drier and warmer than normal. Spring as a whole so far is much warmer, drier and sunnier than average. Could be record breaking looking at the extended forecast.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/n ... statistics

[Simon Culling]

There was a very large dust devil in the centre of Manchester yesterday (Saturday 10th May 2025) afternoon around 3pm. Not often we see this in a city centre.

There are two videos on this YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmfZOGtQUVE