April 2024 Commentary

The general feeling is perhaps that April was a disappointing month, but in reality it was fairly average, although temperatures did tend to decrease rather than increase as the month went on.

Temperatures were never warm but during the first half of the month, the night-time readings were usually in double figures while during the spell from the 14th until the 29th, the night-time figure never rose as high as 10C. Additionally several days seemed to have short spells of sun and then the rest of the day would be dull and overcast.

The first four days of the month were rather wet and although this was followed by two or three weeks of relative dryness, the final week brought more rain.

The average temperature for April was 11.2C which is spot-on the average over the last ten years, though I must admit in our household, we spent more hours with the heating on than in an average April.

The rainfall total for the month was 90.2mm, somewhat above the last decade's average of 65mm but again its effect was exaggerated by the already saturated sub-soil.

There are plentiful yellow and blue flowers in and around the hedgerows and hill-slopes but the extended wet winter has certainly delayed both work on the cricket field and practice in the nets.

Philip Spray