Storm Francis arrived with a vengeance on Tuesday. After the early morning deluge with 17.1mm reported yesterday before 08.00, another 3.3mm fell during the daytime bringing the monthly rainfall total to 52.6mm. However, we have lost the equivalent rainfall of 68mm due to evaporation from the soil and plant life so far this month.
The other noticeable feature was the strength of the wind as forecast. The strongest gust of wind recorded was 48mph at 15.28. This was the strongest gust of wind recorded during the month of August since the station started in 1984.
The wind slowly subsided in the early hours of Wednesday with a maximum gust of just 15mph.
Wednesday morning was in stark contrast to Tuesday with sunshine shortly after dawn with minimal cloud and dry. A transient ridge of high pressure is providing the improved conditions with the barometric pressure having risen 11mb since the Tuesday minimum, with a current reading of 1010.5mb. Storm Francis is now visiting Denmark.
