The March 2012 weather continued a familiar theme of recent times, the month being warm, dry and sunny.

It was the mildest March in Royston since 1997, but even more significant was the fact that the mean daily maximum temperature of 13.6°C (2.9°C above average) was the highest in March since records began in 1972.

The mean night minimum temperature in the month was 0.4°C above average at 4.0°C. No air frosts occurred in March, the lowest night minimum temperature being 0.5°C on 26^th. The lowest grass minimum temperature (-3.2°C) of the month was also recorded on this date. It was the first March with no air frost since 1997. A total of 10 ground frosts occurred in the month.

The highest temperature recorded in March was 21.6°C on 28^th, making this day the equal warmest day in March since at least 1972. The other March day achieving this temperature was 17^th March 1990.

The mildest night of the month was 10^th with a minimum temperature of 7.5°C. The coldest day in March was 5^th with a maximum temperature of the same value, 7.5°C.

The mean earth temperature at 30 cms depth as observed at 0900 GMT daily was 7.7°C, which is 1.0°C above average.

Although the warm spell at the end of March was a newsworthy event it was overshadowed by the continuing severe drought which has now lasted well over a year. March started off on a wet note when 14.0 millimetres rainfall was recorded on 4^th, but this turned out to be a false dawn when dry conditions returned for the rest of the month, and no measurable rainfall at all was recorded over the period 19^th to 31^st.

Total rainfall in March was 20.5 millimetres, which is 52% of average. The wettest day of the month was 4^th as noted above, whilst the number of "rain days" (0.2 millimetres or more) was 7, with rainfall exceeding 1.0 millimetre on 3 of these days. March 2011 was a much drier month with only 4.4 millimetres rainfall!

The cumulative total of rainfall for 2012 to the end of March stands at 85.6 millimetres, which is 66% of average.

March was a very sunny month with a sunshine total of 188.0 hours, which is 164% of average. It was the sunniest March since 2003 (197.9 hours). The sunniest day in March was 28^th with 12.2 hours sunshine, but 26^th, 27^th and 29^th also achieved sunshine totals very close to this figure with sunshine of over 12 hours.

Only 4 days (4^th, 12^th, 13^th and 16^th) in March were completely sunless.

The mean wind speed in March was 5.0 mph, and the maximum wind gust recorded was 34 mph on 7^th. The highest daily (00/00 GMT) mean wind speed was 14.1 mph on 5^th, and at the other end of the scale the lowest daily mean wind speed was 1.1 mph on 13^th.

Winds with a westerly component accounted for about half the days in the month, with a fairly even distribution of winds across the other sectors, as per the following analysis of daily wind directions at 0900 GMT: NORTH 2 days, NE 2, E 3, SE 5, S 3, W 3, W 8, NW 5 and CALM 0.

The mean MSL air pressure was very high at 1027.1 mB, which is 12.1 mB above average. The highest and lowest air pressure values recorded in March were 1037.7 mB and 1009.0 mB on 27^th and 7^th respectively.

The mean relative humidity in the month was 80.9%. The highest daily (00/00 GMT) mean relative humidity was 95.2% on 12^th, whilst the lowest daily mean was 52.8% on 28^th. The absolute lowest relative humidity reading in March was 31% at 1555 GMT on 28^th.

The number of days with fog (visibility < 1000 metres @ 0900 GMT) in March was 5 (2^nd, 12^th, 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th). On 2 (12^th and 23^rd) of these days visibility fell below the 200 metres threshold.

Met. Observer, Royston (Iceni) Weather Station

5^th April 2012