What a horrendous day we endured in Coventry on the 9th April 1998
with 22 hours of rain, gale force winds, and 21.0mm of rain recorded
at Bablake mixed in with sleet and ice pellets.

13 years years later, we are expecting unbroken sunshine and highs
around 20°C - I think I know what I prefer!

Meanwhile, the mean day time temperature in the first week of April in
Coventry has been 5.4°C above average for this time of year. a bit
like 2007 all over again, though it doesn't look as if it will last.

Just to remind you what it was like in April 2007 here in
Coventry..................

.....................with temperature records for Coventry dating back
to 1892, it was the warmest April (11.7C) on record, eclipsing the
previous warmest April in 1893 (11.2C).

The Central England Temperature Series, devised by Gordon Manley, and
maintained by the Met Office today, has records dating back to 1659,
the year after Oliver Cromwell died – such is the length of this
temperature record. We are reliably informed that April was the
warmest in the CET series, over 348 years!

Steve Jackson
Bablake Weather Station
Coventry UK
www.bablakeweather.co.uk

With just 5.1mm of rain during the month, it was the driest April in
Coventry since 1938 (2.0mm). This was just 10% of the 30 year average
rainfall for Coventry (1971-2000).

With sunshine records dating back to 1894 in Coventry, April 2007 was
the sunniest April (243.0hr) on record, beating the previous record of
231.4 hours of sunshine set in 1984.


/p