UK March Third Warmest, Fifth Driest

Image courtesy of the UK Met Office.

By Jim Andrews, Senior Meteorologist

Apr 10, 2012; 10:08 AM ET

Record warmth in Scotland powered March average U.K. temperature to the third highest in the modern record, the U.K. Met Office blog said last week.
It was the warmest U.K. March since 1957, the blog added.
Although all of the UK was nominally warmer than normal, the most extraordinary readings were registered over Scotland and into northern England and Northern Ireland.
A spell of unusually sunny, warm days during the last week of the month allowed wide areas of northern U.K., most of all Scotland, to reach 20 degrees C (68 F) and more--easily befitting midsummer at the region's northerly latitude.
Topping all of the Scotland warm spots was Aboyne, which reached 23.6 degrees C (74.5 F) on the 27th, for the highest March temperature on record in Scotland.
Oddly, perhaps, the record high broken on March 27th had been set on the 26th, when, in turn, a new top temperature reached on the 25th was eclipsed, the Met Office blog said late in March.
Meanwhile, March 2012 was the fifth driest in the modern record, having an average of only 38 percent of normal precipitation over the U.K. as a whole.
The dryness allowed ongoing drought to worsen in parts of eastern and southeastern England.
The modern climate record for the U.K. dates back to 1910, according to the Met Office.

UK March Third Warmest, Fifth Driest