British Isles weather diary
Recent temperature, rainfall and sunshine extremes over the British Isles- Maximum temperature; 06-18 UTC
- Minimum temperature; 18-06 UTC
- Grass minimum temperature; 18-06 UTC
- Overnight rainfall; 18-06 UTC
- Daytime rainfall; 06-18 UTC
- Note that during cold weather many official sites on these maps under-report precipitation due to problems with icing and with solid snow blocking the tipping bucket raingauge.
- Sunshine; sunrise-sunset yesterday
Current significant weather maps
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Current temperature maps
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British Isles weather, March 2020
There was little air frost over the British Isles on the 28th due to brisk winds and/or cloud cover. There was some light rain overnight across N Scotland as pressure continued to rise and cold fronts edged S'wards over N areas of Britain. The day was fairly cloudy and chilly with a fresh NE'ly wind, and a few mostly light showers in the north and east. It was sunnier and warmer towards the south coast of England. By 1900 GMT MSL pressure had risen to 1048.2 mb at Stornoway; prior to this, the MSL pressure on 3 March 1990 at St Mary's Airport, Isles of Scilly of 1047.9 mb was the highest UK air pressure in March. (Hurn 13.8C, Lerwick 3.9C maximum, Bala -3.1C minimum, Resallach 2.4 mm, Camborne 11.5 h.)
Air pressure continued to rise a little further in NW areas on the 29th; Malin Head peaked at 1051.3mb at 1100 GMT, the highest British Isles air pressure on record. As a result, an unusually strong N/NE'ly wind blew across the British Isles. There was some sunshine, especially in the W where temperatures were locally not far from normal, but most places were cold and it was rather showery in the E and SE; some of the showers were heavy over East Anglia and Kent, with hail, snow - and even a sferic northeast of Lewes (with pressure 1035 mb at the time). Any early air frost was mainly confined to parts of N Ireland and S Scotland. (Usk No.2 10.1C, Bainbridge 4.3C maximum, Castlederg -2.5C minimum, Resallach 4.2 mm, Camborne 11.2 h.)
Pressure remained high on the 30th with a large centre over the Atlantic. Patchy overnight cloud led to an air frost mainly across parts of Ireland and W areas of Britain. Areas close to the E coast had overnight showers and these spread further W'wards during the day. Most areas, however, had some sunny spells. (Glasgow 13.5C, Lake Vyrnwy 6.2C maximum, Trawsgoed -4.0C minimum, Resallach 7.4 mm, Boulmer 10.7 h.)
The 31st was a rather cloudy day and there was little air frost overnight. The E half of England had some overnight rain showers while during the day showers were confined to some N and E areas of Scotland. It was a cool day close to the E coast under the onshore winds. (Porthmadog 13.0C, Pennerley 6.2C maximum, Katesbridge -2.9C minimum, Resallach 4.6 mm, Shoeburyness 11.7 h.)
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Last updated 1 April 2020.
