Author: Eric Gilbert

Sunday saw the dramatic change in our weather as the weather fronts and associated rain from the approaching Atlantic depression brought much warmer air from the south. The thermometer has been rising since Saturday evening when the low of -0.5 was recorded with a continual rise to the maximum in the past twenty-four hours of 7.4C at 08.00 Monday being 0.3C below the average.

The barometric pressure associated with the decline in the anticyclone and approaching depression has fallen from a high of 1032.2mb on Saturday to the current reading on Monday morning at 08.00 of 1016.6mb

The rain that fell during the daylight hours of Sunday and after 05.15 on Monday amounted to 9.7mm bringing the monthly total to 29.2mm when the 37-year average is 67.2mm.

Monday after dawn saw very low cloud masking the Marlborough Downs and Savernake Forest limiting visibility initially to 1500m but began to lift after 08.15. Sunday was a breezy day with a peak gust of 29mph from the south however, Monday arrived with very still conditions, both anemometers motionless.

The soil thermometer at a depth of 5cm read 2.1C at 08.00 on Monday after the low of -2.7C on Saturday. Humidity has returned to more normal levels at 96% on Monday after the dry air of the last two days when it varied between 75% and 80%.

Saturday was predominantly cloudy, the sunshine recorder was triggered for just 12 minutes so not much warmth came from the sun. The thermometer very slowly rose above freezing for just over three hours, reaching a maximum of 0.4C before sliding back to -0.4C at 19.00. The wind continued from the south east gusting to 26mph so wind chill was in effect again during daylight hours.

By 19.40 I noticed that the downward trend in temperature had stopped and the thermometer was beginning to rise as slightly warmer air began to arrive. By midnight the the thermometer read 1.1C. The humidity all day was very low in the high 60s, normally 90%+, which was not surprising as the ground was frozen solid therefore no moisture evaporated from that source or open water areas also being frozen.

Sunday arrived with thick cloud and the thermometer reading 2.2C at 08.00. The wind was still brisk and from the south east with the absence of wind chill. The soil thermometer at a depth of 5cm returned a positive reading for the first time in six days with a reading of +0.1C at 08.00.

Friday brought us 5.9 hours of welcome sunshine, the sunniest day since 4th November. However, the wind then from the east had increased in strength and produced a significant wind chill. The thermometer struggled to get above freezing for a brief period with a maximum of only 1.7C being 6C below the 37-year average and the wind chill making it feel more like -4C. The UV strength rose a title higher with a reading of 1.3 but still rated as low.

The thermometer overnight saw a steady fall to reach a minimum of -4.4C at 07.15 on Saturday morning with the wind chill reading of -7.1C.

Saturday initially brought thin, high cloud and some weak sunshine. The barometric pressure is currently at its highest since 15th January with a peak reading of 1032.2mb at 08.00. This is due to an intense anticyclone stretching from Scandinavia to Denmark that has today changed the wind direction as it has veered further and now from the south east. The cold has reached further into the ground with my 5cm deep thermometer reading -2.7C at 08.00.

The thermometer was very reluctant to rise above freezing on Thursday reaching a peak of just 0.2C before quickly falling away, down a degree on the Wednesday maximum. The reduced sunshine, as compared to the previous day, didn’t encourage the thermometer to rise further with just 2.9 hours as compared to 4.8 hours on Wednesday. Wind chill was still a significant feature making it feel as low as -4C for much of the day and night.

The minimum overnight was -2.4C being 3.9C below average, two degrees up on the previous minimum.

The wind veered into the east on Thursday and continued from that direction on Friday that brought broken cloud with a little brightness after sunrise. The air from the east is much drier as at 08.00 daily it is usually in the high 90s but the Friday humidity was just 72% at that time.

We enjoyed 4.8 hours of welcome sunshine on Wednesday, that in lighter winds still from the northeast, saw the thermometer crawl above zero for several hours. The maximum temperature of 1.9C was reached at 13.13 being 5.8C below average, before thicker cloud arrived.

There were several very light snow flurries during daylight hours with the UV level of 1.2 the highest since 5th November rated as ‘Low’.

Overnight the thermometer dropped steadily to reach a minimum of -4.6C at 03.56 before rising a degree as thin cloud drifted across and a resultant rise in humidity. This minimum was 6.1C below the 37-year average and the coldest day since 3rd February 2019 when the extremely low temperature of -11.3C was recorded.

Thursday arrived with a mainly cloudy sky and the occasional bright interval, the thermometer having risen to -3.4C at 08.00. The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm dropped further in the past twenty-four hours to read -1.8C at 08.00.