Author: Eric Gilbert

Saturday brought little sunshine with the cool westerly breeze gusting to 27mph, the strongest gust for a month. The maximum of 11.7C brought the coolest day for a week but still 3.7C above the average. Once again there was no overnight frost with the thermometer not sinking below 5.6C at 05.54, which was 4.0C above the average.

Sunday dawned a little brighter thanks to temporary ridge of high pressure that meant the cloud was more broken, higher and thinner. The barometric pressure had risen to 1028.4mb at 08.00, the highest since the 12th.

The moist, warm air brought, on a southwesterly breeze on Friday, meant another mild day and night with maximum and minimum of 12.0C and 9.2C being +4.0C and +7.6C respectively. Storm Otto, that was centred off the north of Scotland, meant it was the breeziest day for over a month with a maximum gust of 26mph (14th January 41mph).

Bands of light drizzle occurred occasionally that only amounted to 1.3m but it was the wettest day since 15th January (4.0mm).

Saturday began gloomy as did Friday and Thursday with total cloud cover, thick and a low cloud base. The high pressure centre has slipped southwards into the Atlantic which means the wind will veer a few degrees to come from the west today. The ground temperature at a depth of 5cm registered 8.9C at 08.00, the warmest it has been since 12th January (9.3C).

Temperatures by day and night were well above average with a maximum of 12.8C (+4.8C) and a minimum of 9.4C (+7.8C) due to the run of warm, moist air from the Atlantic brought on winds from the southwest and south later in the day.

Friday arrived as Thursday with total cloud cover with the wind having picked up in strength with a maximum gust of 24mph. The distinct change in the wind, after many days of calm or minimal air movement under the intense high pressure was due to the anticyclone easing away eastwards and the arrival of Storm Otto. This storm was named by the Danish Meteorological Institute as it was forecast to have more impact on their country but Scotland and northern England have experienced gale force winds.

The temperature at 08.00 was 10.3C making it the warmest start to a day at that time since 15th November (11.6C).

During the very sunny morning and early afternoon the sunshine boosted the temperature to 13.7C at 14.16 being 5.7C above average and the warmest day since 14th November. However, advance cloud from an approaching weather front began to thicken with the first raindrops were observed at 16.40, that just dampened the ground, no quantity, after nineteen dry days. Further light rain was triggered the automatic rain gauge at 00.30 and 04.30 with drizzle at 07.40. However, the rainfall total was just 1.2mm.

Due to the thick cloud cover overnight it was a mild night with a minimum of 6.2C at 00.05 earlyThursday, which was 4.6C above the average.

Thursday after first light revealed that another weather front, a warm front, was passing over the area with low, thick cloud bringing banks of light drizzle that were driven on by a southerly wind gusting to 20mph, the strongest since the 3rd. A temperature of 8.3C at 08.00 made it the warmest start to a day at that time this month, equal to that on the 3rd.

The fog thinned into mist late morning but it was not until after 13.00 that the sun began to strengthen, the thermometer then rose to 12.6C being 4.6C above the average. This was the warmest day since the 19th December.

Under clear skies the temperature dropped away to -0.7C at 01.51 early on Wednesday producing an air first for a couple of hours. Subsequently the temperature began to rise to reach 3.9C at 0800.

Wednesday arrived with weak sunshine through thin cloud on the eastern horizon. The high pressure system, that has influenced our weather for the past two weeks, is weakening and receding. As a result the barometric pressure has fallen to 1023.8mb at 0800, the lowest pressure since 20th January. Also changing is the wind direction, forecast to come from the southwest today indicating a significant change in our weather.