4th April: A warm start to April in many places. For instance the 2nd saw the south warm and sunny with Lee on Solent reaching as high as 18.4C. The third saw the warmth move northwards, with Inverbervie in Scotland reaching 18.9C, certainly very warm in Scotland for early April though nowhere near any records. The 4th saw the warmth back in the south again with Charlwood (near Gatwick Airport in Surrey) reaching 18.3C. It will make the abrupt change to a much colder pattern with snow about in the next few days, all the more notable.

6th April: A cold polar based air mass covered the UK giving a cold night with widespread frost (see http://www.wetterzentrale.de/archive/2008/brack/bracka20080406.gif.
However as a slow moving occluded front pushed south later in the night, snow fell from it widely and it was one of the snowiest April days on record in recent memory. Parts of the south and Midlands saw up to 10-12cm fall early in the morning and even the far south, central London saw lying snow and right along the coasts from Swanage- Kent saw as much as 5-7cm . Snow fell right onto the beaches here and lay, something that hasn't happened for over a decade and certainly not in April.  Although it melted in strong Spring sunshine during the day it was enough to give a very unseasonal and wintry day for many as children (and not a few Dads too) built snowmen on the beaches.

11th April: A cold period after the early warmth. Wintry showers continued in the period up to the 11th in places as a generally cold northerly flow persisted. Temperatures were nearly a degree below average in the first third of the month (tempered by the warm start). However in the mainly N-NE ly flow it was very sunny in the SW with 150% of the average expected but parts of Eastern Scotland saw twice the average rainfall expected in contrast to just 50% across East Anglia.  

16th April: After half of the month now temperatures have fallen to a degree below average across the CET zone of central England. However sunshine is well above average at 127% and rainfall just 80% so it's not all bad news. Of course months below average -by definition- should occur as frequently as months above average, so it is an indication of how used we have become to warm months in the last decade that a month where the temperature is only a degree below can feel so chilly.  

25th April: As we approach the end of April now, few will regret the fact that we are heading towards days of maximum daylight quite quickly now. Just eight weeks before the longest day now and as long as the sun is out now it has the strength to transform even a chilly day into something reasonable. Looking at the next few days though, we may not see much of it anyway sadly!