March 2026 was a complete flip from what happened in the winter, so those parts of the NW corner of the UK which were very dry during the winter, ended up being the wettesp places in March. Conversely, most of England was a lot drier in March than it was in the winter, especially towards the SE.

For in Edinburgh, the main Met Office station at Gogarbank was wetter than average in March, though only just and no more and had it not been for a spell of high pressure dominated weather in the middle of the month, it would probably have been a lot wetter here than it actually ended. As it was, our rainfall totals in March were only just above average with some stations recording only average or even slightly below average rainfall overall.

However, even that is in complete contrast to the same month last year which was very dry. Indeed, that very dry spring followed by a dry summer was what led to the various issues with drought and water scarcity which I then went on report quite a lot on this forum as a result. Even this year, there is still a slight overall deficit at Edinburgh Gogarbank overall for this year so far, but that deficit is very small and nothing like in the same scale of what we experienced last year.

Furthermore, we are also in an unsettled spell just now and over the course of the Easter weekend, it could even get quite stormy. That would suggest that a wet start to this month at least, seems likely and when you add all of that today, I don't see any issues with water scarcity arising on this occasion, such as what we experienced last year.

However it all pans out though, this is the very place to report those all important rainfall totals for this month in your area.

With that in mind, the latest rainfall data for Edinburgh Gogarbank is as follows:

Data For Recent Days

24 hour total up to 10 am BST (09:00 UTC) this morning: 0.2 mm

Total since 10 am BST (09:00 UTC) this morning: 0.0 mm (as at 9:40 pm BST (20:40 UTC) this evening on Tuesday 7 April 2026)

Monthly Data

Total for this month so far: 25.0 mm (54.5% of 1991-2020 April average)

Number of rain days during this month: 5 (54.3% of 1991-2020 April average)

Number of dry days during this month: 1

We are only a week into this month but this already means that only at least another 5 official rain days need to be recorded between now and the end of this month in order for this month to go down as being wetter than average in terms of the number of rain days.

Seasonal Data

Total for this spring so far: 87.0 mm (58.6% of 1991-2020 spring average)

Number of rain days during this spring: 18 (59.5% of 1991-2020 spring average)

Number of dry days during this spring: 14

Annual Data

Total for this year so far: 199.2 mm (25.4% of 1991-2020 annual average)

Number of rain days during this year: 49 (35.7% of 1991-2020 annual average)

Number of dry days during this year: 26

Note

This data has been obtained from https://www.ogimet.com  in raw BUFR format, and then converted into a more readable form by my own python script.

Edit. (The front has almost passed through and still dry)

Same here, 4 weeks now since we had more than a couple of mm. 

Data For Recent Days

24 hour total up to 10 am BST (09:00 UTC) this morning: 2.4 mm

Total since 10 am BST (09:00 UTC) this morning: 0.0 mm (as at 2:40 pm BST (13:40 UTC) this afternoon on Saturday 11 April 2026)

Monthly Data

Total for this month so far: 28.2 mm (61.5% of 1991-2020 April average)

Number of rain days during this month: 6 (65.1% of 1991-2020 April average)

Number of dry days during this month: 3

This means that only at least another 17.8 mm of rain now needs to fall between now and the end of this month in order for this month to go down as being wetter than average in terms of the actual rainfall amounts.

In addition to that, only at least another 4 official rain days need to be recorded between now and the end of this month in order for this month to go down as being wetter than average in terms of the number of rain days.

Seasonal Data

Total for this spring so far: 90.2 mm (60.7% of 1991-2020 spring average)

Number of rain days during this spring: 19 (62.8% of 1991-2020 spring average)

Number of dry days during this spring: 16

Annual Data

Total for this year so far: 202.4 mm (25.8% of 1991-2020 annual average)

Number of rain days during this year: 50 (36.4% of 1991-2020 annual average)

Number of dry days during this year: 28

Note

This data has been obtained from https://www.ogimet.com  in raw BUFR format, and then converted into a more readable form by my own python script.

Data For Recent Days

24 hour total up to 10 am BST (09:00 UTC) yesterday morning: 2.4 mm

Total since 10 am BST (09:00 UTC) yesterday morning: 1.6 mm (as at 6:40 am BST (05:40 UTC) this morning on Sunday 12 April 2026)

Monthly Data

Total for this month so far: 29.8 mm (65.0% of 1991-2020 April average)

Number of rain days during this month: 7 (76.0% of 1991-2020 April average)

Number of dry days during this month: 2

This means that only at least another 16.2 mm of rain now needs to fall between now and the end of this month in order for this month to go down as being wetter than average in terms of the actual rainfall amounts.

In addition to that, only at least another 3 official rain days now need to be recorded between now and the end of this month in order for this month to go down as being wetter than average in terms of the number of rain days.

Seasonal Data

Total for this spring so far: 91.8 mm (61.8% of 1991-2020 spring average)

Number of rain days during this spring: 20 (66.1% of 1991-2020 spring average)

Number of dry days during this spring: 15

Annual Data

Total for this year so far: 204.0 mm (26.0% of 1991-2020 annual average)

Number of rain days during this year: 51 (37.1% of 1991-2020 annual average)

Number of dry days during this year: 27

Note

This data has been obtained from https://www.ogimet.com  in raw BUFR format, and then converted into a more readable form by my own python script.

Lucky ******! Forgotten what rain looks like!

Exceptionally dry for the UK I'd say. But this part of Dorset is a tiny part of the UK.

Data For Recent Days

24 hour total up to 10 am BST (09:00 UTC) yesterday morning: 2.0 mm

Total since 10 am BST (09:00 UTC) yesterday morning: 1.0 mm (as at 5:40 am BST (04:40 UTC) this morning on Monday 13 April 2026)

Monthly Data

Total for this month so far: 31.2 mm (68.0% of 1991-2020 April average)

Number of rain days during this month: 8 (86.9% of 1991-2020 April average)

Number of dry days during this month: 2

This means that only  at least another 14.8 mm of rain now needs to fall between now and the end of this month in order for this month to go down as being wetter than average in terms of the actual rainfall amounts.

In addition to that, only at least another 2 official rain days now need to be recorded between now and the end of this month in order for this month to go down as being wetter than average in terms of the number of rain days.

Seasonal Data

Total for this spring so far: 93.2 mm (62.7% of 1991-2020 spring average)

Number of rain days during this spring: 21 (69.4% of 1991-2020 spring average)

Number of dry days during this spring: 15

Annual Data

Total for this year so far: 205.4 mm (26.2% of 1991-2020 annual average)

Number of rain days during this year: 52 (37.8% of 1991-2020 annual average)

Number of dry days during this year: 27

Note

This data has been obtained from https://www.ogimet.com  in raw BUFR format, and then converted into a more readable form by my own python script.

The forecast again mentions a chance of heavy showers today... will we get the first rain since March?

Plenty of the UK east and south are in a similar situation. Amazingly, to listen to some of the media you'd think it's been cold, wet and dull for a month...

Looking at the radar a shower is possible later. A big clump moved up from N.France earlier but ran up the N.Sea and to our east just clipping Dover. Cleaned my car last week and now a thick layer of dust and pollen on it.

Having been watching the Met Office video forecasts of late I can confirm that and in fact contacted them this morning via email and Facebook to ask if they were evenly vaguely aware of the situation as it is never mentioned!

TBF we've pretty much got a textbook Mediterranean climate now, just as predicted back in the 80s and 90s! Look up csb, especially Porto, and you'll see some familiar-looking graphs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_climate#Warm-summer_Mediterranean_climate 

It's not dissimilar. A marked dropoff in rain in the summer half of the year, temperatures in the mid 20s in summer... we're a tad colder all round, especially in winter, but we're not far off it. And similarly Victoria (on Vancouver Island) - again, not far off, warmer if anything!

The response to my email from the Met is laughable given that I specifically referred to the South East corner and coastal Kent.

"Thank you for your email.

We don't have the complete observations for April yet but given what you say it will be worth checking once they are published early next month.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/research/mwr_2026_03_for_print.pdf  "

Scroll down to the rainfall map of the UK.

The map of rainfall on this link he sent does not back that up at all. Even for the UK as a whole I pointed out that it isn't good practice to take a large region of above average rainfall and combine it with one of below average and come up with average rainfall overall!

We've had about 1.5mm so far today and it feels damp. So for many people, conditions like today merely enhance the impression of a wet spring perhaps? The same for March perhaps.

I'd take issue with the term 'wildfires' because we had some fires here in Dorset too, which were certainly not 'wild' as in started by natural means. An arsonist caused these. Maybe the others they mention, bar the Dartmoor ones, began with lightning strikes, though I'd say they were purely arsonic. As are most if not all of these fires in the UK.