Has spring weather really been that bad?

For the vast majority of the UK spring has been much wetter than average.

In March we had 107.8mm of rain compared with the average of 84.9mm, so it ranks in the top 20% of wettest Marches.

April was even wetter!

We had 111.4mm of rain, compared to the average of 71.9mm. It was the sixth wettest April of the last 189 years.

The wet theme continued into May with rainfall figures coming in well above average and some weather stations in northern England and southern Scotland having had more than double the average rainfall.

This very wet spring follows on from a wetter than average winter.

The accumulation of rainfall has led to numerous flood warnings and difficulties for farmers with water logged soil.

The ground remains saturated across much of the county but especially in parts of northern England and southern Scotland, which will increase the chances of flooding given any episodes of heavy rain in the weeks ahead.

One exception to the wet spring is north-west Scotland where the weather has been much drier than average.

In terms of sunshine, spring can neatly be described as dull!

It's been cloudier than normal in March, April and May and as a consequence, frosts have been rare.

Spring always brings some big swings in temperatures with spells of mild and cold weather.

This spring started on a cold note with disruptive snow in parts of Northern Ireland, northern England and the Midlands.

During May many areas have seen some warm spells with temperatures widely reaching the mid-twenties Celsius, so overall spring has been much milder than average.

Mean temperatures in March were 6.7C, which was the 11th warmest in 141 years, and 1C above average.

The respective stats for April were 8.3C, the 22nd warmest and 0.4C above the average.

It's clear that May has also been a very mild month with individual weather stations reporting above average temperatures of between 1C in southern England to as much as 4C in parts of Scotland.

Once the May data is available it will significantly boost these spring temperature figures.

Climate change means that monthly temperatures are more likely to be above average than below.

That has been the case for the three months of spring 2024.

It also plays a role in bringing heavier rain. Warmer air can evaporate more water from the oceans, and for every 1C rise in temperature we get 7% more moisture in the atmosphere.

This spring has been far wetter than average, so here too we are probably looking at the finger prints of climate change.

June looks to start on a settled note with high pressure bringing drier weather and some sunny spells.

There's likely to be a transition to more showery conditions for a while but beyond that it's hard to be sure what the forecast will bring.

There are two factors that can help when thinking about what the trend for summer could be.

It's therefore much more likely this summer will be warmer than average.