WEATHER experts today confirmed that March had been one of the sunniest in almost a century.

Paul Mott, of the PA Weather Centre, said North Yorkshire enjoyed more than 160 hours of sunshine in total during the month. The average figure for March is drastically lower with just 102 hours of sunshine over the whole month.

Ironically the new month saw people reach for their umbrellas this morning as April showers hit the region.

But the weather centre said that the dry weather would return on Thursday and the county should remain dry and sunny over the weekend and into next week.

Mr Mott said: "In England and Wales as a whole, this March has entered the record books as the sunniest since 1907. This is also probably the case for the Yorkshire region." He said that the maximum temperatures in the daytime had been 2.4C higher than normal temperatures experienced in March, with the county's average daytime temperature being 11C.

The area was also far drier, with 44 per cent less rainfall than usual.

Mr Mott said the good weather was due to high pressure systems dominating the country throughout March.

The warm weather seems to have had a positive impact on tourism.

Della Rhodes, manager of York's Tourist Information Centre, said that York had been extremely busy.

She said: "The warm weather obviously encourages people to pay a visit to York. It definitely feels busier than this time last year, although we don't have any official figures yet."

Weather historian Philip Eden said the start of the year had also seen warmer weather than usual with temperatures on January 26 and 27 reaching record-breaking levels. With 73 hours of sunshine in North Yorkshire, there was 30 per cent more sunshine than average. And he said the county experienced the driest and sunniest February since 1998.

Updated: 11:05 Tuesday, April 01, 2003