Author: Eric Gilbert

The tropical air was still in place for the first part of Wednesday with the thermometer reaching 16.9C being 2.2C above average. However, as storm Aurore, named by Meteo-France, moved eastwards along the English Channel and Southern England, a dramatic change occurred in our weather.

Just after 1600 the wind began to veer from the southwest to southeast then northeast mid-evening before coming from the north at midnight and northwest at 0100 on Thursday. This swift change in wind direction was due to the changing position of the depression as it moved eastwards.

Rain from the depression was noted just before 1950 and continued for four hours, often heavy, producing another 20.3mm of rainfall that brought the monthly total to 89.1mm being 4mm above the 37-year average.

The average number of daily rainfall totals exceeding 20mm is 2.6 for the year but it has occurred three times in October and once in September. The record was 6 in 2014.

The temperature after 0300 began to drop, due to the change in wind direction, and fell to 7.3C at 0800 on Thursday. The strength of the wind from this direction and fall in temperature meant windchill occurred so that 7.3C felt more like 6.0C at that time.

The last of the cloud from the depression was seen in the southeast at dawn and the sun began to rise above it just before 0800.

The wind from the northwest is a drier air current that saw the humidity drop to 76% at 0800 on Thursday, not seen that low at that time of day since 20th July.

Tuesday brought a very pleasant morning with light winds and some brightness that saw the thermometer rise to 18.5C on the south-southwest tropical air stream. That peak was 4C above the average and the second warmest day in October (20.3C on the 7th).

Continuous rain for many hours arrived at 1700, that combined with another heavy fall at 0730 on Wednesday, produced in total 23.6mm of precipitation. This was the wettest 24 hours since 3rd October 2020 when 49.9mm was recorded. There have now been two very wet days in October as 23.1mm was recorded on the 2nd. The monthly rainfall now stands at 68.7mm when the 37-year average is 85.4mm.

The temperature held around 16C for most of the night being 9C above average but as the rain band that arrived at 0730 cleared away the thermometer fell back to 13.9C at 0800.

By 0800 on Wednesday the rain band could be seen exiting to the east with more broken cloud and areas of blue sky appearing. The breeze has veered a few degrees and is now coming from the southwest but much lighter after the squalls in the rain bands when a maximum gust of 28mph was recorded.

Monday brought no sunshine, the third occasion this month, due to continuous low cloud that gave misty conditions with light rain for many hours that totalled 4.6mm. The light breeze from the south-southwest meant another mild day with a daytime peak of 15.6, However, overnight the thermometer rose again to reach 16.7C at 0800 on Tuesday, the warmest start to a day at that time since 8th September.

The tropical air continued into Tuesday morning on the south-southwest wind that had increased in strength with a gust of 23mph, the strongest for a fortnight. Dawn saw total cloud cover with again misty conditions. The barometric pressure has slowly been declining and now with a reading of 1012.2mb, the lowest since 5th October.

On Sunday the temperature rose even higher than previous days under the influence of the tropical air brought on the south or southwest breeze. The thermometer peaked at 18.1C, which was 3.6C above average and the warmest day since the 7th.

The moist air overnight produced much condensations as the thermometer dropped away to 9.1C being 2C above average then rose 2.5C after 0130 to reach 11.6C at 0800 on Monday.

Misty conditions greeted the new day on Monday with total cloud cover and a light southerly breeze.

Saturday saw the continuation of the warm air on a southerly air stream as the thermometer rose to 17.4C being 3C above average. It was another dry day, the tenth this month, with UV as expected at this time of year rated as ‘Low’.

Dry and warm overnight under cloud cover with a minimum of 10.3C, which was 3.2C above average.

Sunday arrived with total cloud cover and calm conditions with the anemometer stationery.

The barometric pressure has been slowly ebbing away with the reading at 0800 on Sunday of 10168mb being 16mb below the peak a week ago.