AS WE move into meteorological summer (June, July and August) University of Reading meteorologist Dr Stephen Burt compares this year’s spring weather (March, April and May) with previous records.
A major feature of the past three months has been a noticeable reduction in rainfall, and frequent clear skies that resulted in warmer spring days and colder nights.
Although the mean spring temperature (the average of the daily maximum and minimum) was 10.9 °C (just one degree more than normal, and slightly lower than in 2024) daytime temperatures were up.
“The mean daily maximum temperature was 16.8 °C,” said Dr Burt.
“That’s 2.5 °C above normal, and looks likely to become the highest value for any spring on our records back to 1908.”
Conversely, frequent clear skies led to lower night-time temperatures.
“The mean daily minimum temperature of 5.1 °C, was nearly half a degree below normal for the time of year,” said Dr Burt.
“Although no air frost was recorded since April 8, remarkably there were 50 ground frosts, compared to just 15 last spring.”
Gardeners and farmers will have been aware that the borough received 48.5 mm of rainfall from March to May.
“That’s just 37% of the 1991-2020 normal,” said Dr Burt.
“Only May received more than half its normal amount to date.
“But perhaps surprisingly, it hasn’t been the driest spring in Reading since the university’s records began in 1908.
“The springs of 1990, 2011, and 1944 were all drier.”
But the lowest borough spring rainfall occured in1893, when a raingauge in Forbury Gardens caught just 33.3 mm.
Sunshine is also a main feature of this year’s spring weather.
Between March 1 and May 27, 639.5 hours of sunshine were recorded by the university’s Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder.
“That’s an average of 7.2 hours per day, and 39% more than normal for the period,” said Dr Burt.
“Even so, it doesn’t beat the spring of 2020 – the COVID spring – when we recorded 766.5 hours of sunshine during March to May.
“May alone that year had 345 hours of sunshine – that’s more than 11 hours per day on average, and by far the sunniest month yet on our sunshine records which go back to 1956.”
Does this year’s spring weather mean that we can expect a warm, sunny and dry summer too?
Probably not.
“Perhaps worryingly, only three of the 10 sunniest springs on our records since 1956, went on to record a greater duration of sunshine in the summer that followed,” said Dr Burt.
“So I hope everyone made the most of it while it lasted.”
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