Marvellous March
Post categories: weather
| 14:46 UK time, Monday, 26 March 2012
What a glorious weekend: lots of super Spring sunshine with afternoon temperatures more like June than March!
Great weather for everyone taking part in Sport Relief including
Porthmadog in Gwynedd was the warmest place in the UK on Saturday with temperatures soaring to 22.2 Celsius, 72 Fahrenheit. That's about 12 degrees above the seasonal average and warmer than Malaga in Spain!
The reason it was so warm in Porthmadog was due to the wind direction, blowing from the east, with the air flowing down the side of the mountains. As the air sinks it warms causing the temperature to rise. This is known as a .
The last time it was this warm in March in Wales was in 2005. Mind you, the nights have been chilly, if not cold. In Bala the temperature at 7am this morning was -1C (30F). So we may be into British Summer Time but we haven't seen the last of Jack Frost.
Satellite image of the UK
The satellite picture shows much of the UK and Ireland is basking in sunshine today. There is hardly a cloud in the sky and it's not often you can say that!
The fine and settled weather will continue for the rest of this week but by the weekend it will turn cooler and cloudier. The wind will turn more into the north with colder air trickling down from the Arctic. Temperatures will drop close to normal and some frost is likely.
For those of you desperate for rain, it looks like April will start dry but there are signs that the heavens may open before Easter as the weather pattern begins to change and it turns more unsettled.
In the meantime, enjoy the sunshine if you can and don't forget the suncream!
Comment number 1.
At 28th Mar 2012, chrishaulwen wrote:An interesting memory. Today is my 64th birthday but when I was celebrating my 4th birthday in Yorkshire my parents tell me that my father, a retained fireman, was out fighting grass fires. Perhaps this is not climate change - just the unusual UK weather, which is affected by so many variables. It does seem strange though, to hear today that much of Yorkshire is now affected by drought conditions. I don't think we have seen this sort of weather in the UK between these years at this time of year. Or can you prove my memory is failing Derek?
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Comment number 2.
At 29th Mar 2012, BJones wrote:With a Davis weather station in the garden, it recorded at 16.00hrs yesterday, a temp. of 22.8C. This is the highest I have recorded in March over the last 4 years.
I'm located on the side of the Epynt near Llangamarch
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