Sunday 7th September
Saturday gave us the warmest day this month and the warmest night, all thanks to a drift of southeasterly air that originated from the near Continent. A maximum of 21.7C was logged at 15.30, being 2.7C above average whilst a minimum of 16.3C was a significant 7.3C above average logged at 06.53 early Sunday. The day was dry with the UV level reaching up to the’High’ category briefly, when the peak solar energy of 854W/ms was logged at 14.06.
Sunday after dawn revealed a bright start but cloud could be seen slowly advancing from the west. There was brief, hazy sunshine through a band of thin cloud on the eastern horizon that was totally obscured by 07.30. After a very mild night the thermometer edged upwards to 16.9C by 08.00.
The recent short lived high pressure has edged much further to the east that has allowed the UK to come under the influence of a depression just to the north of Ireland that is slowly receding towards Iceland. The barometric pressure has dropped 13mb since Saturday with a reading of 1007.5mb at 08.00. However, the western edge of the anticyclone is just sufficient to slow the eastwards progression of a cold weather front that was producing heavy rain moving northwards over east Devon and Dorset also the Bristol area at 08.00. We might just miss out on rain today, but it will be a close run thing.
A rare total lunar eclipse “blood moon” will take place this weekend for the first time since 2022 where the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon – making it turn red, and if the sky is clear it could be seen briefly from 19.30 Sunday evening.
I recently came across the following report. Less than a month since launch, a powerful new weather satellite is already at work. As it silently orbits around the earth, it is sending back data that may actually make a difference in the way we know weather and can predict it. Launched on August 13, the satellite is named MetOp-SG-A1. It’s the first of a new generation of weather satellites developed in Europe. More tomorrow.