Britain has experienced a range of temperatures in April, with some areas reaching a pleasant 22C earlier this month, leading many to believe that spring was well underway and that a warm summer was just around the corner.
However, this week, the temperatures plummeted, with some parts of the country feeling as cold as -6.3C in Cumbria, leaving many people wondering why it still feels so chilly in April and whether this is typical for this time of year.
Professor Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, explained that the UK was currently being hit by cold air coming from Greenland and the Arctic. Despite the cold snap, this kind of weather pattern isn’t entirely unexpected for this season.
“We’ve got a northerly wind bringing in very cold air from Greenland and the Arctic, where the seas are still frozen,” Bentley told the BBC. “You’ll feel that nip in the air when you step outside. We’ve also had clear skies at night, causing a drop in ground temperatures and leading to frost. It’s called a good radiation night, where heat escapes from the ground into the atmosphere, resulting in cooler overnight temperatures.”
While temperatures are currently below average, Bentley noted, “It’s not unusual for us to get temperatures like this at the end of April. It’s certainly not unprecedented in any way.”
According to the Met Office, most of the UK will experience “cool” weather on Sunday, with heavy rain and wind moving across the north, east, and central regions. Looking ahead to next week, temperatures are expected to be “warmer than of late,” with some sunny spells.
From 1 May, the Met Office forecasts a week of temperatures above average for this time of year, with the northwestern parts of the UK likely to be the sunniest and driest.
The temperature fluctuations in April come after Britain recorded its hottest day of the year so far on 12 April, when hazy sunshine sent the mercury soaring to 21C in some areas. Even in the north, places like Manchester saw highs of 16C, while Edinburgh reached 15C.
The 21C recorded in southeast England even surpassed temperatures in some popular European holiday destinations, like Nice in France, where the mercury struggled to get above 20C, and even Algiers in northern Africa, which was cooler than parts of Britain on the same day.
