Windrush Weather

A high of just 6.2C on Tuesday meant a cold day being 4.0C below the 39-year average then followed by a cold night. After falling to 1.1C at 19.53 Tuesday evening the thermometer then rose to 3.5C at 01.55 thanks to cloud cover but then began to fall steadily with a low of -0.6C at 07.54 Wednesday.

Wednesday revealed misty conditions and an air frost, just. The thermometer fell from 0C at 07.00 to -0.6C at 07.54. The cloud was thin and high so a bright start to the day if no sunshine. The light breeze today will come from the northeast so Scandinavian cold air replaces Arctic cold air.

The misty, damp morning and afternoon on Monday, combined with a breezy northwesterly, limited the temperature rise to 10.0C being just 0.2C below the average. The additional rainfall amount of 1.6mm took the monthly total to 121.6mm being 134% of the 39-year average. Overnight was dry and with a minimum of 3.9C was almost exactly average that occurred just before dawn on Tuesday.

Tuesday began dull but there was some brightness around 08.00. The light breeze will back from the north into the west later in the morning as the depression in the North Sea sides southwards. The cooler air stream is likely to mean a much cooler day than yesterday and a temperature close to freezing overnight tonight.

Sunday was a dreadful day with low cloud and drizzle all morning and rain setting in mid-afternoon and again in the early hours of Monday amounting to 7.4mm. That additional precipitation took the monthly rainfall total to 120.0mmm being 132% of the 39-year average of plus 29mm. The thermometer slowly rose to a maximum of 9.4C at 23.04 Sunday evening and then slowly began to fall away reaching 7.9C at 08.00 Monday. Not surprisingly, there was no UV light recorded due to the thick very low cloud that draped the Marlborough Downs and Savernake Forest.

Monday revealed another cloudy day but calm. As the depression eases away eastwards over the Continent the wind will change direction to come from the northwest as the day progresses. This will herald the start of a much cooler period with frost likely from Tuesday onwards. The temperature is still slowly dropping away.

The Arctic air stream on Saturday meant a cold day with the thermometer struggling to reach 5.0C. This was the coldest day since 10th March (4.1C) and a significant 5.2C below the 39-year average. There was no wind chill as the day was very calm with the strongest air movement, couldn’t call it a gust, of just 9mph. It was another dry day, the seventh this month.

The temperature fell steadily late afternoon dropping to freezing (-0.1C) at 17.25 and reached a minimum of 3.0C at 02.55 Sunday. Thereafter, the temperature began to rise again as cloud drifted across our area due to a warm front crossing the UK, as a result the thermometer recovered to exactly 0.0C at 08.00.

Sunday barely dawned as it was dark and dull thanks to the low, thick cloud. The high pressure has receded further so that barometric pressure has dropped further to read 1018.7mb at 08.00.

The air stream on Friday began coming from the northwest in the early hours but just after 11.00 veered into the north and became gusty. The Arctic air, combined with the wind gusting up to 26mph, meant a wind chill so that it felt up to 2C below that indicted on the thermometer. This colder air meant the thermometer struggled to reach 8.6C being 1.6C below the average, the second coldest day this month. During the evening the thermometer fell away under the clear skies and cold air to reach freezing (-0.1C) at 20.11 and then -1.0C at 22.20. The temperature then stabilised until just after 05.00 early Saturday and then began to fall more significantly with -2.0C at 05.15 then -3.0C at 06.05 and the minimum of -4.2C at 08.13, which was a significant 8.2C below the 39-year average. It was the coldest night since 10th February (-4.5C).

Saturday dawned bright with the sun beginning to shine strongly after it rose above the horizon when the temperature began to edge slowly upwards to reach -3.7C at 08.45. It is a calm morning with the breeze forecast to back into the northwest later in the day. The barometric pressure has intensified since Friday rising to 1024.1mb at 08.00.