Hopes of finding decent holiday weather petered out in much of western Europe as Storm Hans struck before Easter, bringing heavy snows that blocked many alpine resorts in France and Switzerland and flooded parts of Italy.
As for the UK, it was a fairly damp Easter holiday for many parts, especially in the west. This would have been welcome news to farmers and gardeners after weeks of dry weather and some high temperatures, as well as firefighters who have been tackling outbreaks of wildfires.
But the UK is now a divided country — the wet west and the dry east, where a stealthy drought is stalking many areas. River flows have been sluggish and well below normal and groundwater levels have also been unusually low. This said, groundwater in the southeast of England was boosted by the very wet weather last year and water levels at reservoirs are healthy, standing at about 90 per cent of capacity at the end of March.
But for farmers and gardeners in southern and central regions the soils are especially dry, and the first half of April continued this trend.
So, have the Easter rains made much difference to this dry picture? They provided some relief for western areas, especially the southwest and Northern Ireland, where April’s rainfall is running above average for this time of the month. But for eastern areas, farmers and gardeners have been left disappointed, with places such as Church Lawford in Warwickshire having had only 3 per cent of its April rainfall. In contrast, Plymouth has been drenched in rain, recording more than 150 per cent of its average April rainfall.
Although outbreaks of rain are still peppering western areas, the east remains stubbornly dry, and the outlook is for high pressure to return with more dry conditions over much of the UK. And with the trees coming into full leaf and drawing up water from the ground, there isn’t much sign of relief for river flows and groundwater levels in eastern and central parts.