T. S. Eliot was right: April is the cruellest month . . . if you are forced to work indoors while the mercury rises to record levels.
Temperature records were broken yesterday as Britain basked in the hottest day of the year with forecasters indicating that the season could be more of an Arab Spring than the usual rainy British fare.
The hottest place in the country, according to the Met Office, was St James’s Park in London where an afternoon temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) was recorded, breaking the previous record for April 6 set as long ago as 1892. Santon Downham, Suffolk, was close behind with a high of 23.5C (74.3).
Records tumbled the previous evening when Scotland and Northern Ireland recorded some of their mildest night-time temperatures. The Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh did not drop below 13.7C (56.7F) the entire night; its warmest minimum temperature since records began there in 1957. By comparison, Athens’ maximum daytime temperature today was 16C (60F) while Barcelona topped the gauge at 18C (64F).
Albeit early in the month, the average temperature for April is over 4C (7F) above average in central England with forecasters predicting a sustained sunny period, thanks to conveyor belts of sub-tropical air wafting up from Portugal, Spain and North Africa.
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Temperatures are expected to reach at 20C (68F) today and tomorrow.
Fortunately for office workers, the weekend is also expected to be warm and sunny with good conditions expected for the Grand National at Aintree on Saturday, although the ground will be very firm because of the lack of rain recently.
Due to its startling warm beginning, it is conceivable that the highest temperature ever recorded in April of 29.4C (84.9F) recorded on April 16, 1949 in Camden Square, London, could be broken.
And while Eliot wrote of lilacs being bred out of the dry land, Britain is set for a bluebell explosion from the parched land.
The current warmth is triggering a surge in spring flowers and new tree leaves with the National Trust reporting that bluebells are already starting to bloom in some southern areas. Hopes are rising they will peak in time for a “Blue Easter”.
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Farmers, too, are enjoying excellent conditions, with good weather for lambing and good grass growth for grazing. Crops are making good progress, but one note of caution is the lack of rain over the past several weeks in parts of the country, especially in the East.
“April is the key month for establishing new crops and if there is no good run of rains this month it will be a problem,” said Mike Thomas at the National Farmers Union.
Although last month was the driest March for 50 years in England and Wales, fears of a drought and hosepipe bans are a long way off. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology report that reservoir and underground aquifer levels are generally high, thanks in part to the wet weather at the end of 2009 when many areas were hit by flooding.
There are however worrying signs in some parts of southern England and the Midlands where groundwater levels are low, and a continued spring drought could see water supply shortages later in the year.