Spring 2021

Spring 2021

Notes on this spring are about a month late but then so is the spring.

A month ago this was the situation:


Unless it pours down in Kent for the next two days, then this April 2021 is set to be one of the driest on record. To date, the average rainfall across the UK this month has been only 14.1mm - that's slightly under one fifth of the average.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 5.7 °C, which is 1.7 °C below the 1981-2010 long-term average, with April being colder than March for the first time since 2012.  Mean maximum temperatures were within a degree of average except in eastern England, but mean minimum temperatures were widely around 3 °C below average away from westernmost coastal counties.  The number of days of air frost across the UK was the highest in a series since 1960.


There was no grass. Hay supplies were exhausted. Crops ceased to grow and we were concerned that some may fail completely.

Then May and the rain came and nature with wonderful resiliance bounced back. Now in late May everything looks full of promise.


Ice in the watermeadow late April

The scene that greeted Rosie as she arrived to start lambing in Scotland