Author: Eric Gilbert

Thursday was dry all day and night until just after 06.45 on Friday morning when a narrow band of rain crossed the area dropping 3.1mm of rainfall, but by 08.00 had cleared the area.

A total of 3.9 hours of sunshine on Thursday and the flow of air from the southwest, meant an above average temperature by day with a peak of 11.7C (+2.0C). Cloud cover and light winds overnight gave a minimum of 6.9C (+3.4C).

Friday saw the rain band and associated cloud easing away to the east at 08.00 with very light winds.

Although Wednesday was dry the continuous cloud cover obscured any sunshine, the third sunless day this month. The flow of southerly air gave us another significantly above average (+3.1C) maximum of 12.8C.

Light rain arrived early evening but the active weather front arrived at 21.30 with a few minutes of heavy rainfall. There was a wind gust of 33mph at 21.17. The southerly wind veered into the southwest as the weather front moved eastwards. Further light showers occurred in the early hours, the heaviest of which was just after 05.00 on Thursday that brought the rail total 7.9mm. The cloud limited the loss of warmth overnight with a minimum of 6.8C (+3.3C) just before dawn.

Thursday after dawn saw the broken cloud from the back edge of the weather front disappearing over the eastern horizon that allowed the sun to be seen as it rose above Savernake Forest at 07.32 with welcome sunshine to follow. A transient ridge of high pressure will produce a drier and sunny day on Thursday.

The southerly air stream from the Continent on Monday meant an above average (+5.1C) maximum of 14.8C. The wind was mainly light with a maximum gust of 13mph when rain bands crossed the area bringing 5.3mm of rainfall.

The thermometer did not drop below 10.6C overnight due to the cloud cover being 7.1C above average.

Tuesday after dawn saw the cloud a little thinner and a little higher than on previous days but no sunshine as on Sunday and Monday. The warmer air by day and night has allowed the soil temperature at a depth of 5cm to rise giving a reading of 10.8C at 08.00, the warmest this month.

Sunday was day to forget as the low cloud persisted all day limiting visibility to around 400m. There was little variation in the temperature with a high of 12.4C. There were a couple of brief showers that amounted to 1.1mm bringing the monthly total to 15.6mm. For most of the day there was an absence of wind, the anemometer occasionally slowly turning with a maximum gust of just 4mph.

Monday arrived with the cloud base higher and visibility greatly improved.

Saturday brought far less sunshine than on previous days with just 1.5 hours due to cloud ahead of the depression in the Atlantic. However, the light wind, mainly from the east or southeast, brought mild air from the Continent that allowed the thermometer to rise 2.4C above average with a peak of 12.4C. It was another dry, the fifth in succession, that has not occurred since mid-September.

The barometric pressure has been steadily falling over the past three days as low pressure systems are positioned in the eastern Atlantic throwing bands of cloud over the UK. As a result it has been the mildest night in a week with a minimum of 9.4C being 5.7C above average.

Sunday arrived with fog that initially limited visibility to 250m but by 08.30 had improved to 500m.