Central England enjoys warmest spring for 350 years
For the UK as a whole, the month of May was the second warmest in records stretching back to 1910.
This year saw the warmest spring for central England in records dating back more than 350 years.
It was the warmest March to May period in the Central England Temperature series, which has records covering an area of central England going back to 1659 – making it the longest instrumental record of temperature in the world.
Temperatures averaged 10.27C (50.49F) this spring, narrowly beating the 2011 record of 10.23C (50.41F), the Met Office said.
For the UK as a whole, the month of May was the second warmest in records stretching back to 1910.
It was a generally dry and settled month, although parts of the South and East were much wetter than normal while parts of the North and West of the UK had much lower rainfall than average.
Despite above-average rainfall in the South East, the amount of rain received since last summer is the lowest for the southern region of the UK since the 1975/1976 drought, the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (CEH) said.
Some exceptionally dry soils in early May caused agricultural stress and the early onset of irrigation in some areas of the South East, the CEH said in its monthly summary.
River flows in the majority of catchments were below average in May, with very low levels across much of Scotland and parts of central and southern England.
Groundwater levels were largely below normal or notably low, except in south-west Scotland and north-east England, the summary showed.
