Welcome rainfall in the right places

During the past 24 hours a band of heavy and persistent rain has spread across much of England and Wales, bringing welcome and much needed rainfall.

The rain has been most welcome across the Midlands as well as southern and eastern parts of England, which are currently experiencing drought conditions due to prolonged spells of dry weather over the last year.

Across the Midlands and central southern England, around 15-25mm of rain fell yesterday.

East Anglia and parts of south east England have had similar amounts, but there is still more rain to come here because the rain is going to linger until Tuesday morning.

This means that by the time the rain has stopped falling, some parts of East Anglia may have seen as much as 40-50mm, locally more.

The good news for drought affected areas, is that another band of rain is going to push across the UK during Wednesday, bringing an additional 5-10mm.

As well as rain falling yesterday, there was also some snow. Colder air tucked in along the back edge of the rain and turned to it snow – even down to low levels across central and eastern parts of England.

However, with the ground still relatively warm after the recent mild weather, the snow struggled to settle on the ground, apart from some of the higher hills above about 200 metres.

Nevertheless, it just goes to show how variable the weather can be in March. Despite the potential for mild, spring-like weather, winter can also bite back at any time.

In between spells of rain this week, there’ll be some sunshine but still frosty nights – especially for the first half of the week, so gardeners beware.

Don’t forget I’ll have a weather forecast each weekday evening after Channel 4 News and you can always get the latest five day forecast on the Channel 4 Weather website.