UK hit with sweeping 280-mile band of rainfall, as sunny spring weather ends

23 April 2025, 06:55

A spell of largely sunny weather for many has come to an end with heavy rainfall across a large swathe of England on Wednesday morning.

Met Office maps show the rain stretching from the north-west of England to the south-east, moving from west to east on Wednesday morning.

The weather will dry out for many as the day continues, with overcast conditions expected in London and the south-east from late morning onwards.

And later in the week the weather is set to be "changeable" with a mix of sunny and wet conditions, the Met Office said.

Met Office meteorologist Dan Stroud said the rain was “welcome news” as rainfall figures for April had so far remained below the amount expected for this time of year.

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Mr Stroud said: “Changeable probably sums it (the weather) up nicely.

“The rain is going to be fairly welcome news for the gardeners, because it’s been actually very dry up until now.

“(For) April to date, rainfall figures are well below where they should be.”

The average rainfall figure for April nationally is 71mm, Mr Stroud said, but the UK has only seen 27.2mm so far, or 38% of the April average.

Mr Stroud added: “Sunny spells and showers is the name of the game on Wednesday afternoon, and that leads quite nicely into a generally dry and settled spell of weather on Thursday.

“But that too will be very short-lived, with another band of cloud and rain slowly edging in from the west towards the end of the week, and more especially next weekend.”