Mild and Wet

Temperatures

The average maximum temperature during April 2018 in Shoreham was 14.2 Celsius (58F), and that was around 2 degrees Celsius (3.5F) above normal for the time of year. The average minimum temperature was 7.9 Celsius (46F), and that was  also about 2 degrees Celsius (3.5F) above  the April normal.

The highest temperature recorded during the month was 22.6 Celsius (73F) on the 18th, and that was the warmest April day in the area for 7 years. The 18th was the first day of an unusually warm spell that lasted for 4 days. On each day the temperature rose above 21 Celsius (70F), and included a high of 22.3 Celsius (72F) on the 20th. There were no other days with maxima above 21 Celsius (70F), with the next highest temperature a mere 17.3 Celsius (63F) on the 10th. On most days (17) the temperature rose to between 12 and 16 Celsius (54-61F), but there were a few chilly days at either end of the month. The 1st, 2nd, 29th and 30th each had maxima below 10 Celsius (50F), but the 30th was the only day with a high below 9 Celsius (48F). On this miserable day the top temperature was only 8.2 Celsius (47F).

There were several mild nights during April, and on 4 occasions the temperature stayed above 10 Celsius (50F). Only 2 of these milder nights had lows above 11 Celsius (52F), with the highest being 12.1 Celsius (54F) on the 19th. On most nights (17) the temperature fell to between 7 and 10 Celsius (45-50F), but there were a few rather chilly nights. On 3 widely spaced occasions, the 1st, 14th and 30th, the minima were below 5 Celsius (41F), with the lowest temperature of 4.1 Celsius (39F) recorded on the 1st. 

The sea temperature,  around  7  Celsius (45F) at the beginning of the month, steadily rose to between 10 and 11 Celsius (50-52F) by the end of April.

Frost

There were neither air nor grass frosts during April. The lowest grass minimum temperature was 1.7 Celsius (35F) on the morning of the 1st.   

Rain

There were 69.8 millimetres (2.7 ins.) of rain during April and that was almost 50% above  the monthly average. Rain fell on 16 days, about 4 days above what one would expect at this time of year, and wet days ( rainfall of 1 millimetre (0.04 ins) or more)  amounted to 12 days.  The month began very wet, with the first 2 days accounting for almost 40% of the April total. The 1st was the wettest day of the month with 14.8 millimetres (0.6 ins.) of rain, followed by the 2nd with 12.8 millimetres (0.5 ins.). Although the 5th and 6th were dry days, the unsettled weather continued until the 10th, with daily rainfall totals including  6 millimetres (0.25 ins.) on the 9th and 4.6 millimetres (0.2 ins.) on the 10th. Between the 11th and 23rd it was mainly dry with the only 2 rain days*  producing a meagre total of 1.4 millimetres (0.06 ins.). The last week of April became changeable again, with the 28th the only dry day. The 30th was a particularly wet day, but with the heaviest rain falling before 10 o`clock in the morning. most of the total was attributed to the 29th, so the figures were 11.8 millimetres (0.5 ins.) on the 29th and 4.6 millimetres (0.2 ins.) on the 30th.    

*A rain day is from 0900-0900 UTC

Snow

No sleet or snow fell in Shoreham during April.

Hail

There was no hail observed in Shoreham during April.

Thunder

There was a thunderstorm late on the evening of the 21st . Although the lightning was quite spectacular for a while, the main activity was to the west and very little rain accompanied the storm.

Wind

The winds during April were variable with no particular direction dominant. If anything, the first 3 weeks of the month had winds generally from the southwest, southeast and occasionally the northeast, whereas the last 10 days of April often had breezes from the west or northwest. The strongest winds were mostly towards the end of the month, and at Shoreham Airport,  southwesterly gusts of 33 knots (38 mph) occurred on the afternoon of the 26th,  and 31 knots (35 mph) from the northwest on the afternoon of the 30th.  

Fog

Patchy fog occurred for a while in central Shoreham on the morning of the 14th.

Statistics for April 2018