Author: Eric Gilbert

The misty, damp morning and afternoon on Monday, combined with a breezy northwesterly, limited the temperature rise to 10.0C being just 0.2C below the average. The additional rainfall amount of 1.6mm took the monthly total to 121.6mm being 134% of the 39-year average. Overnight was dry and with a minimum of 3.9C was almost exactly average that occurred just before dawn on Tuesday.

Tuesday began dull but there was some brightness around 08.00. The light breeze will back from the north into the west later in the morning as the depression in the North Sea sides southwards. The cooler air stream is likely to mean a much cooler day than yesterday and a temperature close to freezing overnight tonight.

Sunday was a dreadful day with low cloud and drizzle all morning and rain setting in mid-afternoon and again in the early hours of Monday amounting to 7.4mm. That additional precipitation took the monthly rainfall total to 120.0mmm being 132% of the 39-year average of plus 29mm. The thermometer slowly rose to a maximum of 9.4C at 23.04 Sunday evening and then slowly began to fall away reaching 7.9C at 08.00 Monday. Not surprisingly, there was no UV light recorded due to the thick very low cloud that draped the Marlborough Downs and Savernake Forest.

Monday revealed another cloudy day but calm. As the depression eases away eastwards over the Continent the wind will change direction to come from the northwest as the day progresses. This will herald the start of a much cooler period with frost likely from Tuesday onwards. The temperature is still slowly dropping away.

The Arctic air stream on Saturday meant a cold day with the thermometer struggling to reach 5.0C. This was the coldest day since 10th March (4.1C) and a significant 5.2C below the 39-year average. There was no wind chill as the day was very calm with the strongest air movement, couldn’t call it a gust, of just 9mph. It was another dry day, the seventh this month.

The temperature fell steadily late afternoon dropping to freezing (-0.1C) at 17.25 and reached a minimum of 3.0C at 02.55 Sunday. Thereafter, the temperature began to rise again as cloud drifted across our area due to a warm front crossing the UK, as a result the thermometer recovered to exactly 0.0C at 08.00.

Sunday barely dawned as it was dark and dull thanks to the low, thick cloud. The high pressure has receded further so that barometric pressure has dropped further to read 1018.7mb at 08.00.

The air stream on Friday began coming from the northwest in the early hours but just after 11.00 veered into the north and became gusty. The Arctic air, combined with the wind gusting up to 26mph, meant a wind chill so that it felt up to 2C below that indicted on the thermometer. This colder air meant the thermometer struggled to reach 8.6C being 1.6C below the average, the second coldest day this month. During the evening the thermometer fell away under the clear skies and cold air to reach freezing (-0.1C) at 20.11 and then -1.0C at 22.20. The temperature then stabilised until just after 05.00 early Saturday and then began to fall more significantly with -2.0C at 05.15 then -3.0C at 06.05 and the minimum of -4.2C at 08.13, which was a significant 8.2C below the 39-year average. It was the coldest night since 10th February (-4.5C).

Saturday dawned bright with the sun beginning to shine strongly after it rose above the horizon when the temperature began to edge slowly upwards to reach -3.7C at 08.45. It is a calm morning with the breeze forecast to back into the northwest later in the day. The barometric pressure has intensified since Friday rising to 1024.1mb at 08.00.

The westerly breeze was gusty on Thursday, reaching 20mph on occasions, but continued the flow of mild air such that the thermometer rose to 12.4C being 2.2C above the average. It was another totally dry day and night, only the fifth this month. The past night was also mild with a low of 7.6C, which was 3.7C above the 39-year average.

Friday dawned dull with the wind that had begun to veer into the westnorthwest now coming briskly from the northwest. The high pressure, now currently elongated in shape, reaches from Spain to Iceland that combined with a low pressure system to the east, will feed a northerly flow of much cooler air, originating near the Arctic, as the day progresses. This is because air around an anticyclone rotates clockwise and the reverse for a depression. As result it will be a much cooler day with windchill in evidence making it feel even cooler than that indicated on the thermometer. The air is now much drier, the humidity at 08.00 read 83%, the lowest humidity since 25th August.

The much cooler air and clearer skies later could well produce an air first overnight, which will be the first for a month.