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UPDATE at 4.30pm:

Sheffield now has a new record with 153.4mm so far in April. Bingley has also broken its record, with 148.6mm.

ENDS

Church Fenton in North Yorkshire has become the first station to report record rainfall following last night's heavy rain.

So far this month, 122mm (5 inches) has fallen, beating the previous record set in 2000 of 115mm. The station average for April is 49mm (2 inches).

Other stations are almost certain to break records with more heavy rain expected during Sunday.

Coningsby and Waddington in drought-hit Lincolnshire were at midday today less than 3mm from beating their station records.

But much more significant would be a new record at Sheffield Weston Park.

So far this month 150mm (6 inches) of rain has been recorded, just 1.5mm short of their record which was again set in 2000. Sheffield's average for April is 63mm.

This is an important climatological site with data which goes back to 1882 - making any records broken here very significant.

The persistent rain that has fallen this month, and in particular in the last few days, has unsurprisingly led to 10 flood warnings being issued on Yorkshire's rivers.

The catchments are now saturated and Sunday's forecast of heavy rain will be of concern to the Environment Agency.

The chart below gives guide as to the amounts of rainfall expected on Sunday from the Met Office Global model, although they could be underdone particularly in Pennine areas where an inch (25mm) of rain or more is likely.

The heavy rain of recent days and on Sunday is likely to improve the situation further - although there is still a long way to go before levels are anywhere near normal.

A respite to the wet weather is expected next week. With pressure rising conditions should be much more settled, with a good deal of dry weather likely across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

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Low pressure will dominate the UK's weather for the rest of April, and possibly into early May, bringing further showers and longer spells of locally heavy rain.

In Lincolnshire, where the drought situation is amongst the worst in the country, some of the highest rainfall totals have been recorded so far this month.

In the 24 hours to 10am on Saturday morning nearly 40mm was recorded at Waddington in Lincolnshire, bringing their monthly total to 101mm, already more than double their monthly average of 47mm.

In records that date back to the end of the Second World War, April 2000 was the wettest with 124mm of rain.

Coningsby's records date back to 1968. Their wettest April on record was in 2000, with 101mm of rain. With a week of the month to go, 85mm has already been recorded at the station.

Latest estimates shown below suggest another 20mm across much of our region between now and the end of Thursday, with up to 50mm - around a month's worth - likely in some Southern parts of the UK.

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Average global temperatures in March rose to +0.108C above the 30 year running mean, from -0.116C in February, based on the UAH satellite measurement shown on the graph below.

Across the UK, March was the third warmest on record, behind March 1938 and March 1957 respectively. It was the 5th driest on record, and the third sunniest.

More locally across Yorkshire, March was the sunniest since records began at Bradford Lister Park in 1908, and the third warmest. It was also the sunniest on record at Leeming, and although dry with 13.2mm, no records for lack of rainfall were broken.

April has so far been dominated by low pressure. Leeming has recorded 34mm of rain, and in drought hit Lincolnshire, 51mm of rain has fallen already at Coningsby. This is more than their monthly average, with two weeks of the month still to come.

The second half of April looks very unsettled across the UK, with showers or longer spells of locally heavy rain. Most stations look set to record their first month of above average rainfall since last autumn.

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