This year’s ‘lockdown spring’ is likely to be the sunniest on record in parts of the UK, and may even rank among the sunniest seasons ever recorded – including all the summers.
Sunshine data from the University of Reading’s weather observatory show that, as at 10am on 20 May, there had already been more than 610 hours of sunshine since the start of March – with more than a week of May still to go. This beats the 604.6 hours in 1990, which was the previous highest spring total since the University’s sunshine records began in 1956.
Remarkably, the amount of sunshine this spring is also almost certain to beat many of the summers in the record, despite spring having significantly fewer hours of daylight. As a percentage of the day length, it may rank in the top five sunniest seasons ever in Reading.
In April, 60.3% of the daylight hours in Reading were sunny, reaching a total of 250.9 hours of sunshine for the month and making it the sunniest April recorded there. Only four other months on the University’s records have ever surpassed 60%, and these all occurred between May and August.
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