Spring starts with a mild and wet March

Author: Press Office

Meteorological spring kicked off with a mild and wet month of weather for the UK, with southern areas particularly wet compared to average.

Although it’s felt like it hasn’t stopped raining for many, no national records have been broken and March 2024 will go down as a wet and dull month, according to provisional statistics from the Met Office.  

Wetter than average 

The UK experienced 27% more rainfall than an average March, with much of this concentrated in the south. A number of counties saw at least double the amount of rainfall they would expect for the month, including Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. 

Although Scotland experienced widespread rain throughout the month, it was drier than average, especially in northern and western areas.  

Map of the UK showing rainfall for March 2024. The map has deep blues over much of southern England with browns over East Anglia and western Scotland depicting drier than average.

A mild month 

The month started cooler than average, with some snow falling early on. But this cool weather was soon replaced with milder conditions for much of the rest of the month, with only brief cooler interludes at times.   

Overall, the provisional mean temperature for the UK was 6.7°C, 1.0°C above average. Southern England was much milder than areas further north, with a mean temperature of 8.2°C (1.4°C above average). Scotland was the coolest region, recording an average temperature of 5.0°C – just 0.6°C above average.  

England provisionally recorded the seventh-warmest March on record in a series from 1884, with an average temperature of 7.8°C.  

Met Office Scientist Emily Carlisle said: “Many will remember how wet March has been, with a succession of fronts and the influence of low pressure seemingly never too far away from the UK. Coming off the back of a wet winter and what has been a wet start to the year, many areas have very saturated ground, which has increased the sensitivity to rainfall events in recent weeks.”  

Map of the UK showing mean temperature for March 2024. Much of the map is a light pink showing above average temperatures for the UK, with slightly darker pink over south eastern England indicating slightly warmer.

Sunshine in short supply 

Many of us have been looking forward to some welcome spring sunshine however, as you’d expect with the frequent rain, sunshine amounts have been in disappointingly short supply during March.  

The UK recorded just 95.2 hours of sunshine for the month (87% of the long-term average). Scotland was the only region to have seen more than its average, with 4% extra sunshine hours than the average.  

Map of the UK showing sunshine hours for the UK in March 2024. The map is yellow over north western Scotland meaning above average sunshine while the rest of the map is grey meaning below average sunshine for the rest of the UK.

 

Provisional March 2024 stats

Max temp (°C)

Min temp (°C)

Mean temp (°C)

Rainfall (mm/%)

Sunshine (hours/ %)

Actual

91/20 anom

Actual

91/20 anom

Actual

91/20 anom

Actual

91/20 anom

Actual

91/20 anom

UK

10.0

0.7

3.5

1.3

6.7

1.0

107.8

127

95.2

87

England

11.1

1.0

4.4

1.7

7.8

1.4

94.3

162

93.4

80

Wales

10.0

0.7

4.0

1.5

7.0

1.1

158.2

153

86.8

79

Scotland

8.1

0.4

1.9

0.7

5.0

0.6

112.7

90

101.4

104

Northern Ireland

9.7

0.2

3.5

1.1

6.6

0.6

129.2

149

88.9

88

 

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