The Psychology of Weather (The Psychology of Everything)

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Bad weather retarded the return of bird migrants. Tummel bridge went from -4.2 to +16.5 on the 14th. Strangely a very dull month in the western isles, but very sunny in Shetland. An annual maximum of less than 90F has happened just under 50% of the time since 1900 (90F is 32.2C). Since 1900, There were record-breaking high temperatures in February, with 20C and then 21C exceeded for the first time. Summer was slightly warmer than average all, but also duller and wetter. The average though masks two extraordinary heatwaves. The UK's record high was broken with 38.7C at Cambridge in July. The late August Bank Holiday was exceptionally hot. It was the wettest autumn on record in South Yorkshire. Please note that personally I am interested in statistical extremes, and that means cold snowy weather in winter and hot sunny weather in summer. I realise that this is not for everybody, and that severe weather can be very dangerous. Very mild. It was a very warm Easter. 24C was recorded in many places on Easter Saturday, which fell on the 3rd.

Very cold, dry, and sunny, mostly anticyclonic wth frequent north winds. There were an unusually large number of night-time frosts, with the mean minima well beneath average. Nationally, on average April was cooler than March - the last time this happened was 2012. It was the fourth driest since systematic records began in 1862. The southeast coast weas particularly dry: Shoreham recorded less than 1 mm for the month. There was 152% of expected sunshine, hence just surpassing 2020; it was particularly sunny in northern England and southern Scotland. The highest temperature of the month was 21.4C at Treknow (Cornwall) on the 1st, and the lowest -9.4C at Tulloch Bridge on the 12th.or more has been seen in 16 years from 1900 on (1906, 1911, 1923, 1932, 1948, 1957, 1976, 1990, 1995, 2003, 2006, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022).

January . Overall close to average temperatures. The second half of the month was colder. It was a dry month, and very dry in east and southeast Scotland and northeast England, with 52% average rain overall. Sunshine was average, although again it was sunny in southeast Scotland and northeast England, and dull in the SW. The highest temperature of the month was 14.2 C at Slapton (Devon) on the 25th, and the lowest -14.3C at Braemar on the 31st. There was a gust of 100 mph at Cardiff in a gale on the 1st, when the pressure was also very low for April. Overall the month was wet, but was very close to the long-term average temperature. Cromer reached 25C on the 29th. There were some notable sharp frosts, including -9.0 at Thame, Oxon, on the night of the 4th. For many places the 4th or 5th were the coldest nights of the year. I remember the hoar frosts being particularly spectacular that year, even right on the Cornish coast. These severe frosts caused much crop damage. Ireland saw some snow on the 3rd. Yet it reached 25C at Aberdovery on the 30th, as a hot spell started on the 29th. The month was extremely sunny in eastern Scotland. April was unusually colder than March. Warm (9.6C CET), sunny, and dry. The first three weeks were very settled and dry; the final week was wet and unsettled. The minimum at Hawarden (Flintshire) on the 10th was -7.5C. There was a memorable early heatwave. The warm weather began on Monday 14th. The temperature reached 27.4C (81.3F) at Stratfield Mortimer (Beds., near Reading) on the 16th - the third highest April temperature for the country ever recorded, and the highest since 1949. There were more very high temperatures to the west and north of the country on the 17th (Maundy Thursday): it was 26.9C at Lochcarron (Wester Ross) - a new April record for Scotland, 27C at Prestatyn (the highest Welsh record since 1893), and even 22.1C at Orkney. Unfortunately it was much cooler on the east coast. The southerly airflow was accompanied by a substantial and widespread Saharan dustfall originating from the west Algerian desert from the 13th to the 21st. The daily range at Altnaharra on Good Friday, the 18 April was an enormous 28.2C (from 24.5C maximum to -3.7C minimum the next night). The whole of the British Isles was cloudless on Good Friday. The hot weather was suddenly replaced by much colder easterlies over Easter (18-21st), starting on the Saturday, with some marked temperature decreases. The drought ended in the third week: some places on the east coast, near Loftus, Redcar, and Whitby, had had no measurable rain for 42 days, from 13 March to 23 April. There were some heavy showers at the end of the month. On the 30th, south of Manchester, 25 mm of hail fell in 3 minutes, containing some 12 mm hailstones. Average sunshine was 182 hours, but Torquay saw 254. Overall the month was the warmest since 1987 (and before that 1961; it was the eighth warmest on record), the sunniest since 1990, and the driest since 1997.Dry and pleasant in the east. There was a widespread snowfall between the 1st and 5th in the north. A cold first half. There was a notable cold snap following notable warm spell at end of March: it was 25.0C in Cromer, Norfolk on 29 March, but -10.6C at Achnagiochan (Strathspey) on the morning of the 2nd of April; there was a light covering of snow across east England, with temperatures near freezing, accompanied by a strong north wind. A minimum of -9.4C was recorded at Caldecott (Rutland) near Corby, Northants., on the 4th. There was widespread light snow, and a blizzard in Scotland on the 2nd. 20 cm of snow lay in Edinburgh and it was cut off for a while. The cold air was introduced by a cold front moving south on the 2nd; the temperature fell 10C in 3 hours in the south on the 2nd. Also on the 21st, the Great Coventry Tornado, unusually occurring on a warm, calm day.

An unsettled month; twice as much rainfall as usual in Wales and the Pennines. Only NE Scotland saw average rainfall. Sunny and warm (9.9C CET). There was a remarkable hot early spell: it was 23.9C at Leeming on the 2nd, 25.6 widely across the east on the 3rd, 26.5C reported reported at Greenwich on the 4th, and 26.4C confirmed at Cambridge that day. At Mildenhall (Suffolk) the temperature maximum was 26C on the 4th but only 9C on the 5th, following the passage of a cold front. The weather broke at the end of the month. The month was very dry in Aberdeen. Very warm (10.0C). It was also cloudy and wet in much of England and Wales. 153 mm of rain was recorded in Plymouth. It was however sunny in Northern Scotland.

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Cold with northerly winds for the first three weeks, then milder after the 24th. Dry in SE England and SW Scotland. Slightly beneath average temperature overall. A warm start and end, but a long cold middle from the 5th to the 20th. 20C is reached for the first time this year on the late date of 26 April. Temperatures ranged from 22.0C at Weybourne (Norfolk) on the 26th to -6.8C at Braemar on the 14th. Slightly wetter(14% above) than normal. Up to 10 cm of snow fell across the SE on the morning of the 6th. It was a thundery month with much hail. It was a cloudy month inland and in the north, but sunny along the west and south coasts.

Very warm (9.2C CET) ‚ the warmest April of the 30s. It was however very dull in places in the east. The "snow" reported at Epsom on the 19th was almost certainly just soft hail (the temperature was recorded as 11C). In general, it was a very dry month; indeed, the second driest of the century over much of the country, with a E&W average of 16.4 mm. It was however quite cool, but with a warm spell between the 26th and 29th, with 79F recorded at Maidenhead on the 28th. Sunny in the SW but dull in the NE, with just 67 hours of sunshine recorded at Newcastle. It was though a dry month everywhere, particularly in Durham and Yorkshire. A mixed month. It started unsettled and cool, but turned warmer from the 5th with easterly winds, before turning cooler again. Then Easter (late this year 19 - 22 April) was very warm. The hottest day of the year so far (since February of course) was Saturday 20, when Gosport (Hants.) reached 25.5C. Scotland (23.4C, Edinburgh), Wales (23.2, Hawarden), and Northern Ireland (21.0C, Helen's Bay, Co, Down) had a record-breakingly warm Easter Sunday. Easter Monday was even warmer, with 24.2C at Kinlochewe, 23.6 at Cardiff, and 21.7C at Armagh; it reached 24.6C at Heathrow. The final week was unsettled and stormy in places. Overall it was warmer than average, particularly in NW Scotland. It was dry overall, with 71% of average, particularly in the southeast. It was slightly sunnier than average (114%). The higest temperature of the month was 25.8C at Treknow (Cornwall) on the 19th, and the lowest -6.8C at Braemar on the 10th. 58.2 mm of rain fell at Buxton on the 27-28th. See here for information about the British weather and extreme weather events in Britain, indexed by year . Overall, it was the driest April of the century in Scotland and East Anglia as a huge anticyclone settled over the country. This month was very dry in northwest Scotland (!). It was very warm early in the month, with 22C reported from several locations in the N and W on the 4th, and 22.0C at Achnashellach (Highland) on the 7th. It was a duller than average month in eastern England and the Midlands. Tynemouth recorded only 77 hours of sunshine, and in Scarborough it was the dullest April since 1937. On the other hand it was a very sunny month in the North West; Prabost in Invernessshire recorded 257.5 hours of sunshine and Fort Augustus 203.7 hours.

Heatwaves and humans – a recipe for trouble

While we're on top tens, here's Jonathan Webb's of TORRO top 30. He's given me his top fifteen widespread events and his top fifteen convective (more local thunderstorms).