Blimey... the last time there was a high of 6C or less down here was on the 20th January!

It could well hit 20 or 21 tomorrow...

MetO forecast for the SE:

A dry and bright day with plenty of sunshine. Very warm but with strong, blustery winds. Maximum temperature 21 °C.

(It certainly felt more like summer out there this morning - I had the neighbour's dog for an hour earlier and spent some of the time chasing him - and being chased by him - round the garden. Knackering, I was sweating buckets with the humidity!)

It's not so much the cold temperatures which are the main concern here though.

There's been so much rain here recently that rail services between Edinburgh and Glasgow have been cancelled because of flooding on the tracks and that is far more serious.

We've had nowhere near double figures yet here this month ❄️🌧🥶

As I write, our maximum temperatures are currently running around 4.5°C below the 1991-2020 average at Edinburgh Gogarbank with the average temperatures running around 2.2°C below that same average (night time minimums are around average although this is only due to cloudy and overcast skies which have stopped the temperatures from dropping at night and stopped us from getting any frosts).

That is in complete contrast to those consistently warmer than average CET figures which I keep on seeing every day on that particular thread.

That in turn shows that it is a completely different world down south at the moment as regards to temperatures from what we're experiencing up here.

Tomorrow we could exceed 20C for the first time this year.

How I envy you... 3 and a bit years and counting since the last covering of snow on the ground here.

Snow on the ground in April IMBY is the stuff of legend, mind you, it hasn't happened for 40 years and I suspect it never will again during my lifetime. I also suspect I'll die without having seen snow falling and settling on Christmas Day, as that last happened in 1970 - almost a decade before I was even born.

Anyway, no such issues with very mild weather, we have that in abundance! You're more than welcome to it, frankly.

I would love to have a few dry days with temperatures above 14 C with some brightness. Not much to ask!

Even the winter just gone which was the wettest in 140 years was nowhere near as vile as this. Even December had some decent days and usable weather. This is catastrophically dire, repulsive and hideous garbage that you just wouldn't realistically expect at any time of year.

57.8 hours of rain already this month which is more than the entirety of every April since 2006 bar 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2022. The mean maximum of 6.1C is colder than all but 7 days in February and likely the coldest for the first 5 days of April since 1989 possibly even 1970.

It's also been completely sunless bar 2.3 hours yesterday which was still a godawful day. This Spring has now had 14 completely sunless days which equals what 2018 recorded in it's entirety and only last year, with 19, had more for the entire season.

I can see the 15.1C recorded on 2nd February remaining the warmest day of the year even at the close of this detestable April. The run of three consecutive Aprils without reaching 16C is already a record, there never having been more than two between the 1940s and 2020s.

It's just excrutiatingly awful and an extreme danger to good health and wellbeing 🤬

Actually, Richard's sunshine total beats the total for Edinburgh Gogarbank by 0.2 hours (which is 12 minutes), so he can at least say that he's not technically speaking, not been in the dullest part of Scotland this week.

However, 0.2 hours is very little so that will no doubt be a very little consolation for him.

2022's rain duration now surpassed and 2008 will be soon that will leave just the revolting April's of 2012 and 2016 ahead of this horror show and they would be about the only ones I've experienced to have had six days as disgusting as this in their entirety. 

When I was down in London I vistited the Museum of the Mind at the Royal Bethlem Psychiatric Hospital, on a miserable wet morning, where they had a brilliant sculpture which just sums up how I feel enduring life in this rotten lousy country.

🤢🤢🤢

No wonder there is a mental health crisis unfolding in this grim wasteland. Working all week to end up slapped in the face with this filth at the weekend. Where is the quality of life in being trapped in your house like a vegetable because the weather is constantly so hideous?

I have often said the quality of life in this country is the worst in the developed world but with what we are now expected to contend with I would go as far as to say living in a mud hut in Mali would be more enjoyable 🤬🤬🤬

Moan over. 

There is no question that this is the worst ever start to April. Just off the scale in terms of rainfall. Over 80mm already and only around 1 in 6 Aprils manage that for the full month. 2012 was slightly duller but at least had the interest of snow.

There has been nothing at all of interest. Just stupefying amounts of rain and cloud with dire cold day temperatures and mild nights. A putrid combination like nothing on earth we would ever have seen before. There hasn't been a frost in over 5 weeks which is unprecedented this early in spring. Not even in the warmest years never mind anything as cold as this as we continues to endure day after day of winter 5-7C temperatures. Just a brief respite when it got to 14C but didn't feel anything like as warm due to the totally revolting wind. Just nothing decent at all.

Rainfall for the first 10 days of April:

2024 81.2

2016 48.8

2022 48.6

2008 38.6

2012 33.8

2019 29.2

2023 23.8

2009 22.2

2018 22.0

2017 21.4

2006 20.0

2014 10.6

2021 7.2

2015 5.6

2010 4.6

2013 4.2

2011 2.2

2020 1.8

2007 0.2

and sunshine hours

2017 77.0

2015 70.3

2007 68.6

2011 65.4

2021 64.4

2020 54.1

2010 48.8

2022 48.3

2008 46.3

2018 37.9

2013 37.2

2019 36.0

2023 35.9

2009 24.1

2014 23.9

2016 21.4

2024 18.7

2012 14.5

An absolutely hideous performance that on it's own would stand out as extraordinarily grim. In the context of whats been endured since September 2022 there are no words 🤢🤢🤢

In recent springs, we have often had far more frosts during that spring than what had during the winter before that, especially if that preceding winter has been disappointing with very little in the way of snow or frost.

However, that hasn't been the case this year even though last winter was once again, very poor in terms of any snow or frost.

Last month, the number of air frosts here in Edinburgh was well below average once again and during this month so far, we haven't even had as much as a ground frost, let alone an actual air frost.

I know that we're almost halfway through the spring and into British Summer Time but even with that, I still think that it's a bit early to be getting no frosts at all in any given month.

After all, we would normally expect to be getting just under 3 air frosts on average during April here in Edinburgh and just under one air frost on average even during May.

It is then only during the summer months that we would expect to get no air frosts at all on average and even then, we can still be prone to the odd ground frost on a clear night, especially during June.

(I know overall it has been above average  for most but the cool spells since March have been very mediocre and not cold enough for snow. 

Booked the day off yesterday to celebrate!

😁

(it was raining by teatime, mind)

Forecast suggests sunny spells later once mist dissipates.

Edit the murk has now morphed into drizzle.

Very bad in the south coasts due to SW flow which a bit less effected in the hazy sunshine Midlands.  Conservatory is a must for on going record wet and dull weather non stop. This help to dry your washing with ease as it still get warmish and dry guaranteed.

Bring your washing along here! Sun now coming out from time to time - I'm planning on some gardening later