Friday was cool with the thermometer not rising above 4.1C due to the northerly air stream. However, the night was very cold with the thermometer dropping to a minimum of -3.2C at 02.56 on Saturday. Both the maximum and minimum were below average with -6.5C and -5.6C respectively.
Saturday dawned with a little brightness as we are under a short-lived ridge of high pressure. The barometric pressure has recovered to 1010.5mb after low of 988.6mb on Wednesday.
A warm front that crossed the area on Thursday morning slowly lifted the temperature to reach a peak of 10.4C at 15.13. This was produced by a weather front associated with a depression to the west of the UK and brought the warmest day since 20th February but still 0.2C below the 39-year average. The rise in temperature saw a steady thaw of the lying snow so that by evening it had all but disappeared.
As the depression slowly moved eastwards the wind swung into the north and brought much cooler weather after 23.00 that saw a low of 0.6C at 06.30 on Friday. The change in wind direction brought another weather front that saw the precipitation change into snow at 06.30 and continue until 08.00. The daily precipitation amounted to 13.2mm making it the wettest day since 13th January (22.8mm) and took the monthly total to 33.6mm, being 57% of the 39-year average.
It snowed all day on Wednesday, with brief breaks, as the weather front moved across the area. The breeze from the northeast was from a cool direction so that combined with the thick, low, cloud it was not surprising to find that it was the coldest day since 14th December with a maximum of just 1.2C being 9.4C below the March average. The additional precipitation amounted to 9.1mm that took the monthly total to 20.4mm being 34% of the long-term average and almost twice the February total.
The thermometer hovered around 1C for much of the night although it did dip to 0.5C at 02.30 on Thursday before recovering to 1.1C at 08.00.
Thursday arrived with light rain as the warm front approached, continuing the steady thaw, with the wind changing to come from a more southerly quadrant during the day.
A depression in the channel brought a weather front across the area in the early hours of Wednesday after the thermometer had dropped below freezing at 20.45 with a minimum of -0.4C at 21.35. The first light snow was observed at 03.05 on Wednesday before it became heavier and stopped at 07.35. There was 8cm of level snow due to the calm conditions during the main snowfall. The melted snow from the 5″ Meteorological standard copper rain gauge amounted to 6.1mm of precipitation making it the wettest day since 15th January. It was the first air frost this month.
With the arrival of the snow bearing cloud the temperature lifted just above freezing in the early hours that by 05.00 reached 0.2C and 0.4C at 08.00. It has been the coldest start to a day this month.
Wednesday brought further light snow flakes after 08.15 with more likely later in the day. The closeness of the depression saw the barometric pressure fall further with a reading of 990.7mb at 08.00, the lowest pressure since 17th January.
There were a couple of light showers during the afternoon but more rain fell briefly at 23.00 and then started again at 01.50 that turned to snow as the temperature dropped. The thermometer rose to 8.9C at 12.15 on Monday and then slowly dropped to around 6C for the evening. Thereafter, the temperature fell away to reach a minimum of 0.6C at 05.12.
The cold front arrived in the early hours of Tuesday bringing precipitation and a change in wind direction.
Tuesday at first light revealed a light coating of snow on the soft ground, not hard surfaces. By 08.00 the thermometer had recovered to 1.1C when a slight thaw of lying snow took place whilst very light snow, more consistency of drizzle, fell briefly at 07.40. The total precipitation amounted to 4.2mm.
This change in our weather was brought about by the depression sinking southwards down the east coast of the UK with the airstream veering from the west into the northwest. The barometric pressure had dropped to 1000.3mb at 08.00 due to the nearby depression. This is the lowest pressure reading since 18th January.