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It felt as if spring had finally sprung earlier this month, with temperatures reaching over 20°C in some areas of Britain.
But the brief spot of warm weather proved to be a false dawn: since then, temperatures have returned into the single digits, with many people forced to retrieve the winters coats they thought had been consigned to storage for another year.
As we shiver towards the end of April, i asks the experts why has this spring been so chilly – and when the weather is likely to improve.
Why is it so cold?
According to Dr Matt Patterson, a postdoctoral research assistant in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford, the current cold weather has been caused by a “big persistent region of high pressure” to the north-west of the UK, which is “bringing northerly winds”.
This means that parts of Scotland and the East of England have been experiencing temperatures below normal. More western areas, like Northern Ireland, have been less affected.
Met Office spokesperson Greg Dewhurst also said that much of the UK had been going through a “chilly spell” due to northerly winds.
“Particularly at this time of year if we’ve got northerly winds it brings colder air in…often in these months if we’ve got a northerly flow temperatures will be below average, if it’s a southerly flow they’ll be above average,” he said.
Has spring been worse than usual?
However, Mr Dewhurst rejected the suggestion that the weather this spring has been especially awful. He said the mean temperature for April currently sits at 8.7°C, which is slightly above average.
However, there was a “perception of it feeling colder” because it had been “quite dull” for this time of year, with less sunshine that would be expected, Mr Dewhurst said.
“That’s what gives the perception and the feel that it’s been a disappointing spring so far,” he said.
Dr Patterson agreed that recent temperatures have not deviated far from what would be expected at this time of year.
“Europe as a whole has been colder than average over the last few days…but if you look back to the weekend of the 13th, there was actually record heat across Europe, [albeit] fairly briefly.”
He added: “The UK saw a bit of that, certainly in the south-east it was touching 20 degrees then…so we’ve had this swing from temperatures 10 degrees above average 10 or 11 days ago to now five degrees below average.”
“I think it just illustrates how April as a whole can be quite variable, you can get a bit of everything in this month. The sun is as intense as it would be in August, but the ocean is still warming up. So we can get all sorts of different weather”
When will it get warmer?
The good news is that temperatures are expected to return to around average levels from this weekend.
The bad news? Low pressure is expected to bring in “unsettled weather”, which means more rain, Mr Dewhurst said.
The Met Office’s long range forecast for 29 April to 8 May predicts wet weather in the south and drier weather in the north, with a chance of thundery showers in the east.
Looking into May, the Met Office is predicting “spells of wet weather”, but notes that average temperatures rise by around 1°C per week at this time of year, meaning hotter days are on their way.
