Resort enjoys sunny April

The town again enjoyed some wonderful sunshine with nearly 248 hours in all, well above the average for the month of 185 hours.

Weymouth weatherman Bob Poots said this brought annual sunshine figures to 597 hours which was a scorching 149 hours above average.

April showers are famous but rainfall for the month was actually below average with rain falling on 17 days including the most - 12.3mm or half an inch - on April 20.

The average for the month is 47.6mm but this April only saw 43.7mm, bring annual rainfall total up to 253.4mm or just 2.1mm above average.

Snowflakes were recorded several times on April 6 while hail was recorded on the April 11, 13 and 29.

Thunder was heard on April 20 and 27 and lightning was recorded with the thunder on April 20 while ground frost was recorded six times.

The highest wind speed recorded during April was a gust of 48mph.

Most temperatures were above monthly averages with the maximum up 0.1 Centigrade at 12.4C, the minimum up 1.2C at 6.1C, the mean up 0.7C at 9.3C and the average sea temperature right on average at 9.1C.

Meanwhile, April brought an unsettled month of weather for Dorchester.

Meteorologist John Oliver said 48.9mm of rainfall fell in the Dorchester area - lower than average.

He said: "Much of the rain in the first half of the month was light and of a showery nature.

"The wettest day was April 29 with 17.1mm measured."

He said April's mean day maximum temperature was 4.7C.

"This was below the record warm of April 2007 but was still 1.1C above the average of the last 30 years," Mr Oliver said.

Arctic air brought snow showers on April 6 and gave a maximum temperate of just 6.8C.

The warmest day of the month was April 26 with a top temperature of 19.2C.

Mr Oliver said: "Night temperatures were just 0.1C below average and air frosts were noted on seven nights - with a reading of -4.1C on April 8."

The month's maximum wind speed was recorded on April 11 - a gust of 41 mph.