The breeze on Sunday continued from the cool east that again pegged back the rise in temperature to a maximum of 16.8C, however, this was still 2.7C above my long term average. Out of the wind it felt very warm in the sunshine with the UV level once again at the top end of the ‘Moderate’ category thanks to the very thin high cloud that limited the solar strength to a maximum of 670W/m2 at its peak.
The pattern of numerous hours of glorious sunshine under clear skies again produced the expected cool night as the thermometer very slowly and continuously allowed the warmth to dissipate into the atmosphere with the thermometer only dropping to freezing point of -0.1C at 06.31 early Monday. However, this only lasted for 7 minutes as the sun quickly began to reverse the trend so that by 06.38 the thermometer had returned to 0C. The ground frost lasted for several hours but the air frost was lifted after just 7 minutes.
Monday morning was a repeat of the previous days as the sun shone strongly after the sunrise at 06.30, raising the temperature to 5.7C at 08.00. This will give us another day with likely wall-to-wall sunshine, the maximum well above average and likely feeling warmer with a lighter breeze.
The anticyclone has continued to build over the past two days with its centre closer to the UK, currently over the North Sea, as the depression eased westward and began to fill slowly. This has seen the pressure gradient between the two giants fall thus reducing the wind strength, a little yesterday and will be much lighter over the next few days. The high pressure will move very little over the next few days so more of the same with the wind continuing to come from an easterly quarter and not change direction until possibly Saturday. The barometric pressure has risen 7mb since its low on the 3rd to read 1026.0mb at 08.00 today.
Image from Priory Gardens, Marlborough.