March ‘wetter, duller, and slightly warmer than average’

While the month started relatively cold, it quickly warmed up, which was combined with heavy rainfall.

Overall during the month there was 117mm of rain against an average of 63mm.

‘Overall, March was wetter, duller, and slightly warmer than the average,’ a Met Office spokesman said.

‘Low pressure was never too far away and as a result the average monthly pressure was the lowest since 2018. The month had almost double the average rainfall, making it the wettest March since 2001, with a total of 117.4mm recorded. With warm moist Atlantic air commonplace, the month saw 14 days with fog observed, the highest for 26 years.’

A sixth of the rainfall – 21mm – fell last Friday as Storm Mathis bore down on the island, leading to localised flooding.

It led to the month’s top wind speeds being recorded.

On that day the wind touched gale force on nine occasions throughout the morning, with a peak gust of 53kt (61mph) just after at 7am, the Met Office said at the time last Friday.

Although persistent rain had cleared by mid-morning, by that point 17.8mm had fallen across a 12-hour period.’

The second highest wind speed of the month – 45 knots – was recorded in Friday 24 March, when they combined with high spring tides to see waves overtopping the west coast. The highest temperature for the month was just below 14C, during the middle of the month. While there were cold spells, the coldest air temperature was 2C.

The average air temperature for the month was 8.8C. The average is 8C.

With so much rainfall, the month did not come close to its average 135 hours of sunshine.

‘It’s unsurprising then that only 93.5 hours of sunshine were recorded, making it the dullest March for 10 years,’ the spokesman said.

Overall there were 21 days when rain was recorded, and nine days when there was no sun.

Guernsey Water has stated that its water storage levels are currently above average.