Author: Eric Gilbert

Tuesday was a day of squally showers and strong sunshine. The 4.7 hours of sun was not sufficient to generate much warmth in the strong westerly wind gusting to a peak of 38mph.

Just after 10.00 a brief shower of ice pellets was observed and late afternoon a brief shower of light hail was seen amounting to 0.2mm.

The UV of 1.2 was the highest since November 4th.

The thermometer struggled to reach a maximum of 6.7C at 11.29 before thicker intermittent cloud arrived, which was 0.8C below average. Overnight, under a clear sky, the thermometer steadily dropped away to a minimum of 1.8C at 06.42 Wednesday morning.

Dawn on Wednesday was bright with continuous strong sunshine as soon as the sun eased above the horizon at 07.38.

Although Storm Ciara had moved off to Scandinavia the after effects of the low pressure were still felt on Monday as the winds were very stormy with a maximum gust of 42mph at 17.30.

There were frequent squally showers in the past twenty-four hours that amounted to 6.3mm bringing the monthly total to 28.5mm when the 35-year average is 64.9mm. The modest rain totals resulting from Storm Ciara are far less than has been recorded in many other areas, which also applies the extreme wind speeds. Once again the local area has got off lightly, fortunate.

Tuesday arrive with the winds having moderated somewhat, but still strong, producing a wind chill as the polar air all the way from Greenland mes itself felt.

The thermometer struggled to a maximum of 7.4C on Monday, the first below average maximum this month (-0.1C) and down almost 5C on the Sunday maximum. The minimum of 2.9C was recorded at 07.36 (+1.6C) Tuesday morning.

Sunday saw the effects of Storm Ciara as winds were exceptionally strong all day, gusting to a maximum of 51mph at 08.22, the strongest since 2nd January 2018.

There was light rain all day interspersed with heavy bursts, amounting to 9.7mm. A vicious squall line passed through just after 18.30 that stretched from Devon to Oxford.

The temperature rose unusually high for early February reaching a peak of 12.2C at 13.47 before falling back to a minimum of 4.3C early Monday.

Monday morning was less boisterous, although still breezy, with the thermometer reading 5.8C at 08.00 and the humidity very much lower at 76%.

Saturday was the calm before the storm with 3.2 hours of sunshine and a modest breeze. The thermometer rose to 10.3C at 14.05, being almost 3C above average, before dropping back to 7.4C at 19.00. Just after midnight the thermometer began to recover so that at 08.00 Sunday it read 10.6C.

As Storm Caira approached the UK the wind very slowly began to increase from Saturday morning. However, it wasn’t until early Sunday morning that the storm force winds began to reach us with a maximum gust at 05.34 of 47mph.

Modest rainfall, many from drizzle, amounted to 1.3mm.

The barometric pressure continues to fall rapidly with a current reading at 08.00 of 993.9mb

Friday provided more sunshine, 4.1 hours but was breezy with the wind gusting to 25mph.

The maximum of 8.2C was just above average whereas the minimum overnight of 6.0C was 4.7C above average.

Saturday arrived with thin but total cloud cover, the cloud base being high with the prospect of some brightness later.