The northeasterly, cool breeze persisted on Thursday that limited the rise in temperature combined, with reduced sunshine. The peak temperature of 14.8C was logged at 16.55 following strong, variable afternoon sunshine being 0.7C above my long-term average. The thermometer began to fall steadily after 20.00, reaching a low of 3.6C at 04.42, just below average for late April.

Friday after dawn revealed fog that had formed in the early hours. Looking at the minute by minute trace of data the humidity began to climb just after 03.00 so I suspect that is when the fog began to form. The visibility at 06.30 was down to 200m but by 07.00 there was visible improvement with the range extended to around 1,000m by 08.00. The temperature had also seen an improvement having climbed to 7.7C by 08.00. The air stream today will be from the south east, a slightly warmer direction than previous days, before backing into the east again tomorrow and then the significant change when it will come from a southwesterly quadrant on Monday.

The ridge of high-pressure will shortly combine with an anticyclone just off the Iberian coast that will bring us the fine weather next week, but that is not before a weather front tries to make progress across the country on Saturday bringing cloud and possibly some light rain.

The forecast rise in warmth and sunshine is still looking positive, with a significant improvement from Sunday with temperatures rising significantly as the week progresses, probably up to Friday.

The sequence of images for the next few days will be of the extensive range of Bluebells in West Woods, near Marlborough