Wraxall Weather Blog

All you can say about April 2012 was it was very wet. Nationally it was the wettest April since 1910 according to the Met Office. Here in Wraxall we recorded 143.8mm, well above the average for April of 52.4mm. Nationally rainfall was 220% above the average, but the West Country was wetter, with 270% of the average here in Wraxall. The wettest day was the 29^th with 28.4mm and flooding on that date was particularly bad in the Somerset area, with Liscombe getting 48.mm on that date. Most of the months rain was in the south of the UK, with the north remaining mostly dry. The month of March had 22 rain days, with rain on every day from the 17^th onwards.

The mean temperature of 8.1C was 2.4C down on the average and was colder than March. The average high temperature was 12.2C, 1.5C below the figure for March and 3C below the April average. The highest temperature was recorded here on the last day of the month at 16.2C and the lowest daytime temperature was recorded at 7.6C on the 8^th of April. A low temperature of -1.4C was recorded on the 6^th and this was the only time it went below zero.

The period from the 17^th to the end of the month was generally unsettled with rain and wind. The weekend of the 28^th and 29^th was particularly windy with 70 mph gusts in places and trees down. Sunshine levels were up for a period of 8 days up to the unsettled period before the 17^th. Overall sunshine hours of 84hrs were 2/3^rd of the average and just under half of that in past years.

February 2012 started very cold and just got slowly milder as the month went on. The first eleven days of the month were very cold with temperatures 4C below the normal average, with hard night frosts and a minimum temperature of -6.8C recorded on two consecutive nights on the 3^rd and 4^th. From the 14^th onwards the day time maximum temperature was in double figures. Overall the cold initial period meant that on average the monthly temperature was 0.5C below the normal February average, without this cold spell the average would have been 3C above normal. The highest temperature was recorded on the 29^th at 14.5C.

Just 10 rain days in February and overall at 24.6mm, rainfall was only 60% of normal levels. The majority of the rain fell on five of the days averaging 4mm on each of these days. Pressure was high for the whole month average pressure of 1030hPa.

It was a very sunny month with sunshine hours up 50% on the average for the month. Snow fell on the 4^th and 10^th but only give a slight covering on the cars and paths. Nationally the highest temperature was recorded at Coleshill at 18.7C on the 23^rd and the coldest being -18.3C recorded at Chesham on the 11^th. That low temperature recorded on the 11^th being the coldest in England since 1986.

It was a very mild December overall, and compared to this time last year it was very mild. The average mean temperature was 3C up on the December average, but it was the low temperatures that were mostly affected, with only 4 night frosts all month and no daytime frosts at all. There was no snow days in December compared to last year where snow remained on the ground for up to a week. The coldest temperature was -2.5C on the morning of the 10th, but the mean low temperature was as much as 3.2C above the average for December. The Christmas period was very mild with the temperature reaching 12.1 on the 23rd of December. Rain was 66% up on the monthly average with 100.8mm of rain measured for the month. The 11th to the 16th was very wet with the normal monthly average falling on those 7 days alone. Wind wise, those same seven days were the windiest days of the month with Scotland and Northern England suffering very badly with many vehicles blown over in hurricane forced winds that reached 165mph over the Cairngorm summit. Sunshine levels were near normal for December with the two days after the stormy period of the 11 – 16th being the sunniest.