The following represents an assessment of the weather experienced across the UK during Spring 2011 (March, April and May) and how it compares with the 1981 to 2010 averages.
The UK mean temperature for Spring was 9.1 °C, which is 1.4 °C above the 1981-2010 average. Mean temperatures over the UK were 0.3 °C above average during March, 3.3 °C above during April and 0.7 °C above in May. It was the warmest Spring across the UK in a series from 1910, slightly warmer than Spring 2007. April 2011 was also the warmest in the series.
In the Central England temperature series from 1659, the mean temperature of 10.2 °C makes it the equal-warmest Spring (as warm as 1893 and warmer than 2007, when the mean was 10.1 °C).
Spring rainfall was below normal over most of the UK, the exceptions being Cumbria and much of Scotland; May was very wet in western Scotland. Spring was particularly dry over southern and eastern England, where less than a third of the normal amount fell widely; across much of East Anglia, only about 20% of average was recorded. Across England and Wales it was the equal-driest Spring in a series from 1910, similar to Spring 1990. Over many English counties, particularly in the east, it was the driest Spring by some margin and in East Anglia and Kent it was also the driest any 3-month period.
In the England and Wales rainfall series from 1766, it was the third driest Spring and the driest since 1893.
Spring sunshine totals ranged from about 10% above normal across north-west Scotland to about 30% above in eastern England. April was a particularly sunny month with 137% of normal sunshine and the third-sunniest April in a series that begins in 1929. Spring 2011 was the fifth sunniest over the UK and third-sunniest over England in the series.
|The mean value is 9.1 °C, which is 1.4 °C above the 1981-2010 average.||The total is 188 mm, which is 79% of the 1981-2010 average.||The total is 516 hours, which is 118% of the 1981-2010 average.|
Graph of UK daily mean temperature for Spring 2011
Mean temperature anomaly (difference from average) map for Spring 2011
Rainfall percent of average map for Spring 2011