Before 1911 things are less clear because of concerns over the accuracy of measurements. 38.1C (100.5F) was reported as being recorded at Tonbridge on the 22nd, although the screening was nonstandard and this temperature is now recognised as being far too high. The temperature was more likely actually around 36.5C (97-98F). Cold with northerly winds for the first three weeks, then milder after the 24th. Dry in SE England and SW Scotland. April is often the driest month of the year, and 1984 was particularly dry. There was no measurable rainfall across large areas of southern England. In many places (e.g. Glasgow and Cardiff) it was the driest of the century. Onich (Highland) reached 26.5C on the 25th and Londonderry 24.5 on the 26th (the April records for Scotland and Northern Ireland), although Fort William may have made 28.3C on the 24th. This was the last hot and sunny Easter (Easter Day falling quite late, on April 22), until 2011. Warm southerlies arrived on Maundy Thursday, and the next three days saw temperatures passing 21C, reaching 26.1 on Jersey on Easter Sunday. Easter Monday was very sunny across the whole country. A very sunny month in the south. There was however a wet spell midmonth, with westerly winds. Another of his research interest includes how we produce language, although he now studies this in the wider context of how we represent meaning, how language is affected by brain damage, and by normal and pathological ageing (e.g. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases). He also works on how we control our own cognition, and how this ability changes with age. Underlying all his research is a belief that the mind is a parallel, interactive computer, best studied by experimentation and computational modeling. As well as his interest in language and computational modeling, he was also interested in the research of ageing and metacognition. [1]

A warm, dry, sunny month. A very warm start, culminating in 30C at Southend on the 9th. Aldershot recorded 26 on the 3rd, falling to 1. Overall, it was the driest April of the century in Scotland and East Anglia as a huge anticyclone settled over the country. This month was very dry in northwest Scotland (!). It was very warm early in the month, with 22C reported from several locations in the N and W on the 4th, and 22.0C at Achnashellach (Highland) on the 7th. It was a duller than average month in eastern England and the Midlands. Tynemouth recorded only 77 hours of sunshine, and in Scarborough it was the dullest April since 1937. On the other hand it was a very sunny month in the North West; Prabost in Invernessshire recorded 257.5 hours of sunshine and Fort Augustus 203.7 hours.Astell, A. J., & Harley, T. A. (1998). Naming problems in dementia: Semantic or lexical? Aphasiology, 12, 357–374. The highest temperature recorded in Europe is 48.0, at Athens (Greece) on 10 July 1977. The record for France is 46.0 (Verargies, Hérault, 28 June 2019), the Netherlands 40.7 (Gilze en rijen, 25 July 2019), and Spain 47.6 (La Rambla, Cordoba, on 14 August 2021). The coolest April on record (5.4). -15.0C, on the morning of the 2nd, at Newton Rigg in Cumbria is a record minimum. -14.4C was also recorded at Eskdalemuir the same night. There was also a notable snowfall. The first half of the month was particularly bad, with a particularly heavy snowfall in the west (particularly W Scotland and Ireland) on the 1st-2nd. -13.3C at Braemar on the 11th. The weather improved from the 19th, although there was more snow late in the month. or more has been seen 26 years, in (with the temperature being above 34 and beneath 35, 10 times: 1921, 1930, 1933, 1941, 1947, 1959, 1975, 1989, 2013, 2017), plus the 16 years below.

Sunny and warm (9.9C CET). There was a remarkable hot early spell: it was 23.9C at Leeming on the 2nd, 25.6 widely across the east on the 3rd, 26.5C reported reported at Greenwich on the 4th, and 26.4C confirmed at Cambridge that day. At Mildenhall (Suffolk) the temperature maximum was 26C on the 4th but only 9C on the 5th, following the passage of a cold front. The weather broke at the end of the month. The month was very dry in Aberdeen.November 1999). The thunderstorms of early July 1968. Another surprise for me. 1968 was clearly a great year for thunderstorms. Warm and very dry: there was no rain at all in Ross-on-Wye all month. On the 18th, a cold NE gale gave a gust of 97 mph at Stornoway. Dry and sunny bit with some severe night frosts. The month had a warm start. Some places recorded 22C on the 1st. A thunderstorm in Sheffield on the 9th killed two horses. The temperature at Kew was 21C on the 13th, but only 5C on the 15th; -8C was recorded at Benson (Oxford) that day. The end of the month was warm, sunny, and cloudless, with some high temperatures on the 28th.

Very dry and sunny, but with some night frosts. In some places it was the sunniest month of the year. There were however few warm days. Many places recorded no rain from the 7th to 29th. Very warm, sunny first half, but with cool spells in the second half. Northerly air became established on the 18th and led to several days of wintry showers and sharp frosts. It was the driest April for 11 years over England and Wales. The eruption and explosion of Mt. Tambora, one of the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, led to a very cold spell of climate - 1816 was known as the year without a summer". It was the largest explosion recorded in the Holocene (human history) - greater even than the Santorini explosion of 1450 BCE. The explosion was heard over 1500 miles away. It emitted over four times as much ash into the atmosphere as the Krakatoa explosion of 1883. Wet in Scotland, alternating spells of cold and warm weather. An interesting sequence of temperatures at Aviemore: it was 20C on the 6th, but with a maximum of only 5.0C on the 8th, and a minimum of -8.1 on the morning of the 13th. It was 21.3 at Coningsby (Lincs.) on the 18th.Harley, T. A. (2018). Talking the talk: Language, Psychology and Science (2nd. ed.). Hove: Psychology press. The hottest summer days occur when a very hot air mass (drawn up from the Continent on a southerly or southeaserly airflow) stagnates, with very little wind. Temperatures are likely to be higher after a lengthy spell of dry weather (e.g. 1911, 1976, 1990) because more of the sun's heat is used on heating the air rather than evaporating moisture from the ground. If there is wind, sheltered spots are favoured. This is one reason why London fares so well; in addition to any urban heating, it is sheltered from southerly winds by the North Downs. The anticyclone stops the hot air mixing vertically. Obviously the higher the angle of the sun the better (you can't hope for too much on Midwinter's Day!). It helps if the soil is dry, so that energy isn't "wasted" evaporating soil water. Quite warm, with a warm spell midmonth. Sunny in the east but dull elsewhere. It was wet in the SW, with Plymouth seeing twice the average rainfall. Birmingham had 38 mm of rain on the 16th. The record was set for the warmest April 1 this century: 22.6C in Cambridgeshire, at Wryde. On the whole though, the month was cold and unsettled, with rain and thundery spells. Indeed there was heavy snow in the SE on the 6-7th. On the 24th the maximum was 22C; on the 26th it was only 7C. It was a very wet month in southern England, but relatively dry in parts of the east.

March . March was wet and unsettled until the 17th with W and NW winds, then much drier and anticyclonic. It was mild in the south, less so in the north, particularly in the second half. The final week was very sunny. Overall it was much milder than average, but not as mild as 2012 and 2017. It was very wet (5th wettest since 1910 with 140% of rainfall), particular in Northern Ireland and the Northwest. It was sunny in England and Wales with 114% of average sunshine. Highest temperature of the month was 19.8 C at Kew Gardens on the 26th. Lowest temperature of the month was -6.9 C at Aboyne (Aberdeenshire) on the 5th. 74.6 mm of rain fell at Capel Curig (Gwnedd) on the 16-17th.September . A fairly average month, with CET slightly above average at 14.3C, but wet (127%), particularly in the south. The month was mostly quiet, becoming warm, but then very unsettled and wet for the final third of the month. It was a sunny month (115%). The highest temperature of the month was 27.7C at Weybourne (Norfolk) on the 22nd. May . A rather cool changeable month with some cold and warm spells. The final two days were very warm in the SE. Dry in Wales and the south but wetter elsewhere, giving an average of 93% of rainfall. Average sunshine although cloudier in the north. There was a fine spell in the north midmonth and indeed the highest temperature of the month was 25.8C at Kinlochwere (Ross and Cromarty) on the 15th. The lowest temperature was -6.2C at Kinbrace (Sutherland) on the 7th.