The mean sea-level pressure field was very different from normal
with the main low pressure centre displaced 2000km SSW of its
usual location west of Iceland, to be 996mbar at 45N 40W.
The Atlantic high which had been so prominent during the winter
months retreated NNW-wards to be 1022mbar over NW
Greenland. The weak pressure field over Europe reflects
the "month of two halves" character of March as the N-lies of
the first half and S-lies of the second half tended to offset
each other.

There was a strong pattern of anomalies. The main centres were
-18mbar just NW of the Azores
+12mbar over Iceland
-10mbar to the NE of Moscow
+2mbar in the central Med.
Over the British Isles anomalies ranged from +0.5mbar at
Scilly to +5mbar over Shetland. The anomalous flow was
east to northeasterly (which should statistically have given
us a colder-than-average March).

See http://www.climate-uk.com/monpre/0503.htm

CET (prov.) 7.3ºC (0.9 degC above 71-00 mean)
ranked 20/100 warmest
E&W rain 57.6mm (79%) ranked 39/100 driest
E&W sun 86.3h (76%) ranked 15/100 dullest

CScotT 6.7ºC (1.0 degC above 71-00 mean)
Scot rain 76.6mm (106%)
Scot sun 88.6h (85%)

NIT 7.8ºC (1.0 degC above)
NI rain 46.3mm (72%)
NI sun 97.7h (88%)

(Note: The CET and E&W rain aim to reproduce the
series used by others, usually known as CET and EWP;
the other series are my own)

More at
http://www.climate-uk.com/page2.html but this will
be changed to April tomorrow
http://www.climate-uk.com/monthly/0503.htm
http://www.climate-uk.com/graphs/0503.htm
and Not The Long Range Forecast can be seen at
http://www.climate-uk.com/page4.html

Daily and monthly station data are on
http://www.weather-uk.com
and if you want to see what a real two-faced month looks
like, have a gander at
http://www.weather-uk.com/milhaguet/0503D.html


(c) Philip Eden