by Philip Eden

Spring is the season when Britain's prevailing southwesterly winds are at their least powerful, and a search of the archives shows that many a March, April and May have been dominated by easterlies or northerlies. There were comparatively few of those during the late-1980s and 1990s, but last month was certainly one when easterly winds blew more often than not.

It was the coldest March, averaged nationally, since 1996. Mean maximum temperature ranged from 11.9°C on Guernsey to just 5.0°C at Lerwick, Shetland. The Central England Temperature which takes into account overnight minima as well as afternoon maxima, was 5.3°C which is 1.1deg°C below the average for the standard reference period 1971-2000. During the last 100 years there were 59 warmer Marches and 41 colder, but the only one with a lower mean temperature in the last 14 years was that of 1996. The highest individual temperature of the month was just 17°C at Cardiff on the 7th, while the lowest was -22°C at Kinbrace, Caithness, overnight 2nd/3rd - just one degree shy of the national record.

The first six days of March were dry practically everywhere in the country, but thereafter it rained incessantly over much of southern and eastern Britain. From Cornwall to Kent to Norfolk more than double the normal amount of rain fell with many places recording their wettest March since 1947. In Essex, Kent, Sussex and the Channel Islands several places collected three times the long-term average, and at St Helier, Jersey, the month's total of 199mm was unprecedented. In complete contrast, Tiree, in the Inner Hebrides recorded just 29mm of rain, 36 per cent of the normal amount there. Sunshine totals ranged from just 66 hours at Hampstead, north London, to 170 hours at Tiree where it was the sunniest March since 1955.