The numerous hours of sunshine on Saturday raised the temperature to 21.1C late afternoon at 16.59, however, out of the sun and in the brisk breeze it felt cool at times. It was the 15th dry day this month with another 4.3mm of equivalent rainfall lost through evaporation from ground sources and plant life. The forecast for the minimum temperature overnight was around 5C but to my surprise, on reading the data log this morning, I discovered that the thermometer had dropped very low to just 2.2C at 05.31, which was 4.8C below my long-term average. Looking back at the radar trace it clearly showed the thick, low cloud drifting in from the cold North Sea around 05.00, which ties in with the minimum shortly afterwards and the humidity increasing at that time.
Sunday after dawn revealed that the thin, low cloud had descended to form fog that limited visibility to around 300m. The visibility slowly began to recover shortly after 07.00 and by 08.00 had totally cleared. At that time the thermometer had risen significantly to 8.6C but the humidity was still high at 94.2%. As the sun’s strength builds and works on the cloud there is hope that today the cloud will thin and burn off as it retreats back towards the east coast giving us more warm, sunny weather.
The high pressure centre is beginning to move closer to Iceland though still dominating our weather for the next three days. However, it is the first sign that this week we will see a change in the weather pattern, with the first indications from Wednesday and more pronounced from Thursday onwards as the weather will become unsettled as the pressure drops further. After so many days with a persistent northeasterly, the wind will slowly change direction to north and probably northwest from Wednesday. The barometric pressure at 08.00 read 1021.7mb, down 4mb from its high last Thursday.
Abbotsbury Swannery: The swans are based in the western end of the Fleet lagoon, which is the largest lagoon in England. At the height of the season there are 800 to 900 swans, which the swineherd feeds twice a day. The lagoon is open to the sea at its eastern end so the salinity of the water decreases further west, where the swans are based. The Benedictine monks didn’t eat meat but the occasional cygnet was consumed that ate the eelgrass, which gave a fishy taste and was acceptable!
