Author: Eric Gilbert

Under the influence of an anticyclone centred over France a ridge of high pressure continued to influence our weather on Sunday bringing 3.4 hours of welcome sunshine. The fog eased as the morning progressed and by 09.50 the sun began to make an appearance. The wind had veered into the west but was very light, at times the anemometer fell still with a maximum gust of just 8mph.

It was another dry day on Sunday, the ninth this month, with the rainfall total now standing at 66.0mm when the average is 92.3mm.

The thermometer rose slowly in the morning as the fog lifted to reach 11.2C at 13.32 before the cloud thickened again, this was 1.2C above average. During the evening the temperature began to fall reaching a minimum of -0.4C at 01.15 early on Monday morning that was 4.1C below the 36-year average. After a clear sky in the late evening cloud drifted in allowing the temperature to recover to 2.2C at 08.00 on Monday with most evidence of the ground and air frost having disappeared by then.

Monday arrived with almost continuous cloud cover but indications that breaks might appear and allow some brightness as the morning progresses.

Under the influence of high pressure on the Continent the mild, southwesterly air movement continued on Saturday. It resulted in the thermometer rising to a maximum of 11.9C (1.9C above average) at 12.56 with brief bright intervals, the sunshine recorder flickered into life for just 0.7 hours. During the afternoon the thermometer drifted downwards to 10.5C and unusually stayed around that temperature until 01.30 on Sunday morning. Thereafter the temperature fell again to reach a minimum of 6.4C at 08.00 on Sunday being 2.7C above average.

At first light on Sunday a bank of cloud had developed in the early hiss as the temperature fell away limiting visibility to 100m although clear sky was above it to the east. For the next hour or so the visibility varied from 100m to 500m but by 08.00 had thickened again to limit visibility to 100m.

Thick cloud from the approaching weather front on Friday meant another sunless day, the fifth this month, with rain arriving at 09.10 and amounting to 1.3mm.

The northwesterly air mass was replaced by southwesterly then a southerly air stream as the day progressed that saw the thermometer slowly rise from 3.4C at 08.00 on Friday to reach a maximum during the evening rather than daytime, producing a peak of 10.00C at 21.35. The lowest during the night was 9.0C just after midnight.

Saturday arrived with the cloud base much higher and thinner, the wind having veered into the southwest. The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm has recovered from the low of 3.7C on Friday, due to the ground and air frost, recovering to 8.3C at 08.00 on Saturday.

Thursday saw a ridge of high pressure intensify to reach a peak of 1034mb in the early evening that gave us a fine, dry day. The wind veering from southwest to northwest during the daytime, gusted to 22mph. The air from this direction is always cooler so the maximum temperature of 10.5C at 11.47 was 3C down on previous mild day but still 0.5C above average.

The thermometer fell steadily downwards during the evening and early morning of Friday to reach a low of -0.4C at 01.43, which was 4.1C below average and the coldest night since the 5th (-0.6) and 4th (-1.7C). This produced an air frost that had disappeared by daylight as by 08.00 the temperature had recovered to 3.4C and was still rising. Cloud had drifted in during the early hours and although there was a brilliant red sky in the east after dawn the cloud continued to thicken ahead of another rain band that will arrive shortly.

Wednesday brought us the last of the warm, moist air with the thermometer rising to 13.9C at 14.58, which was 4.1C above average. As the cold front traversed the area the wind veered from the south into the west early evening that brought the coldest time for the past twenty-four hours as the thermometer dropped away to 7.2C a 21.20, still being 3.5C above average.

Another 2.4mm of rain fell, principally at 10.45.

Thursday saw broken cloud after dawn with the wind veering further into the west-north west and forecast later to come from the northwest. The temperature this morning recovered just a little to read 8.1C at 08.00 but the wind gusting to 17mph produced a wind chill so that it felt more like 6.2C.