UK 'Climate Crisis' Update: Spring Not Due To Begin Until Mid April

We’ve had a few nice sunny days this April when it felt almost warm and spring-like. But they have been all too brief, interrupted by bouts of rain, wind and cold. Winter is very reluctant to let go. March was a complete disaster: cold and wet across most of the country. The daffodils seem confused. Some started blooming in early March, then gave up. Others are only now blooming, rather late. There was a howling gale blew through here last night. It’s also cold and will be for at least the next 5 days:

A ‘feels like’ temperature of 2C at midday! The UK has been affected by a persistent jetstream flow throughout March and into April. This means interludes of dry, high pressure weather have been very brief. Cold northerlies and wet westerlies have dominated for most of ‘spring’. The situation looks like it may finally be about to change after mid April:

A ridge of high pressure builds, bringing warmer, more settled weather from southern Europe.

St. George’s Day:

Maybe, just maybe, you can put your tomato plants outside come April 17th and turn off the heating indoors. If the rest of the planet is ‘dangerously overheating’, then we must be exceptionally ‘lucky’ in this little corner of the world we call Britain. A huge swathe of the US has also been ‘lucky’ so far this spring, though their luck is about to run out - it might actually stop snowing there soon!