UK seasonal weather summary – spring 2010

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 615 KB
• Volume: 65
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0043-1656
• DOI: 10.1002/wea.630

✦ Synopsis

Much of spring 2010 (March to May) was characterised by areas of high pressure over or west of the UK and the recurrence of rather cold airstreams with a northerly component. This resulted in a slow start to the growing season and at times brought volcanic dust from Iceland, causing disruption to air travel. Late March was notable for prolonged snow across higher parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland. In contrast, the second half of May saw temperatures over 24 °C widely on several days.

The UK mean temperature for spring was 7.6 °C (0.2 degC above the 1971-2000 average). Alternating colder and warmer spells in March and May resulted in the mean temperature over the UK being close to average in these months. April saw plenty of fine weather, with a mean temperature 1.0 degC above normal.

Spring rainfall was below normal for almost the whole UK, and especially across East Anglia, the north Midlands and Lancashire where less than 60% of average was recorded. The provisional UK total was 167 mm (72% of average), making it the driest spring since 1984 and twelfth driest in the series from 1910. Less than 50% of the average fell over most of England and Wales in April and over western Scotland and much of England in May.

The spring sunshine total across the UK was almost 20% above average, largely due to a very sunny April over England and Wales, where spring 2010 was the sixth sunniest in the series from 1929 (equal to 2009).