High Heaton Weather and Air Quality– April 2025

Weather

April 2025 was exceptionally dry and warm. Only 3.6mm of rain fell during April making it the second driest of any month since I started recording monthly rainfall over 30 years’ ago.  Only April 2020, with 2mm of rain, was drier. Rain was recorded on only three days in the month, with Wednesday 16^th being the wettest when 2.6mm fell, mostly unseen as it fell during the night. The average rainfall in April is 49mm.  The last three months have all been remarkably dry with only a total of only 45mm falling, which is about a third of the usual amount. It is therefore unsurprising that farmers and gardeners are becoming increasingly concerned. This is all in great contrast to last year when 261mm fell in the same three months, and fields and gardens were flooded!

With an average temperature of 9.9°C this was the warmest April since 2018 and the third warmest in the last 30 years. This is a substantial 1.5°C above average for April. The first nine days were cooler than usual for early April, although it felt pleasantly warm in the strong sunshine. The next week was much warmer with 20°C being reached for the first time this year on April 11^th. The Easter period was disappointingly cool and cloudy, but the final week saw the temperature rise considerably, combined with almost unbroken sunshine. The month’s maximum temperature was 23.9°C at 3.15pm on Tuesday 29^th. This is highest April temperature since April 19th 2018, when it reached a record 25.3°C. The month’s lowest temperature was -0.1°C at 6.45am on Monday 7^th.

Air Quality

Following two months of poor air quality, April was better, although not exceptionally so. In terms of PM2.5 particle concentration, the WHO target was exceeded on 13 days, while the UK’s less onerous target was exceeded on one day. The Air Quality Index was in the one of the three ‘good’ bands throughout the whole month, being at level three on 1 day, level two on 11 days, and level one on the other 8 days. 

                                                                                                               John Telfer