The Indian Premier League has decided to relocate its cricket tournament to South Africa instead of England next month, and the deciding factor was the weather.
There is no denying that South Africa is several degrees celsius warmer than England in April. And South Africa is sunnier as well, by about three or four hours each day. But when it comes to rainfall, the two countries are not so different at this time of year: London averages 37mm rainfall, Birmingham 53mm and York 41mm. Compare that with Pretoria’s 43mm or Johannesburg’s 38mm. The difference, though, is that the April rains in South Africa tend to come from thunderstorms, which are far less likely in England in springtime.
In fact, April in Britain has an undeserved reputation for rain – in many places it is one of the driest months of the year. The seas around the country are still cold and these cool off the air and help to suppress rainfall.
The direction of the weather plays a large part. Usually our weather sweeps in from the Atlantic in the west, bringing wind and rain. But those westerlies decline in springtime and drier easterly winds can blow instead. And large, stationary anticyclones often become established near the UK that block out depressions off the Atlantic. This is why the West of the UK often has some of the driest weather in springtime, instead of bearing the brunt of wet Atlantic weather.
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