Author: Eric Gilbert

We missed the showers on Sunday, just a few drops late afternoon amounting to only 0.1mm. The light breeze from the south west and 8.8 hours of sunshine meant a slightly warmer day with a maximum of 18.0C, but that was still 2.2C below average. Every day of the last week has brought below average maxima and only one night this month has been above average.

A cool, if not cold night followed with the thermometer falling way down to 4.5C at 03.55, which was the coldest night since 16th May and a significant 5.6C below the 35-year average.

There was a little brightness between 07.30 and 08.00 on Monday morning but thickening cloud from the depression to the east is slowly easing our way.

The shift in the direction of the air mass movement from south west, backing into the north today, will even though it is light in strength, make for a very cool day.

Update on Monday at 15.15: thermometer struggled briefly to reach a maximum of 12.7C, which was almost 8C below average, before falling back to between 10C and 11C as the cloud thickened and rain began to fall steadily and continuously since noon.

After the very wet day on Friday, Saturday brought 10 hours of welcome sunshine. However, the temperature was depressed with a maximum of only 16.2C, which was 4C below the 35-year average. The cool day was due to the very brisk winds from the south west, maximum gust of 26mph, thanks to the strong air flow on the southern flank of storm Miguel, although we did not suffer the stronger winds experienced on the south coast.

A dry day with the UV level rising up to the ‘high’ category, Friday was ‘moderate’ in the afternoon after the rain front had passed through.

Another cool night was to follow, again below average, with a minimum of 6.5C (-3.5C).

Sunday saw strong sunshine from dawn that by 08.00 had lifted the temperature to 13.1C as the depression was long departed and the barometric pressure recovered to give a minor ridge of high pressure with a reading of 1020.8mb after the low of 997.4mb on Friday.

The initial front from Storm Migeul gave us steady rain from 07.00 to until 13.30 on Friday producing 11.1mm. Another three hours, from just before 05.00 to 07.50 Saturday morning, from the back end of the weather front, gave another 5.2mm making a twenty-four hour rainfall total of 16.3mm, the wettest day since 9th May.

On Friday the thermometer hovered around 12C until the afternoon, when the cloud began to thin, producing 2.8 hours of sunshine and a maximum of 17.6C late in the day at 17.05, which was 2.6C below average.

The wind, initially from the north east, veered into the south east as the depression slowly moved northwards circuiting anticlockwise, as low pressure systems do, thus the change in wind directions as the day progressed.

The minimum overnight was 10.0C being 0.1C below average.

Saturday morning arrived with the hang back of cloud and the wind from the south west as Miguel moved off towards Norway.

Update on Saturday at 18.10: forecast strong winds from Storm Miguel were modest today with the peak gust reaching 26mph at 12.15 although moderating over past three hours. A cool day with another below average maximum of 16.2C (-4.0C).

Storm Miguel, named by the Spanish meteorological Organisation on Wednesday, arrived in the early hours of Friday with light showers between 01.30 and 02.15, which gave a rainfall total for the last twenty-four hours of 2.1mm. Friday morning arrived overcast, after initial brightness, with the first rain drops from the depression observed at 07.00 and steady rain began just before 07.30.

The centre of the deep depression is currently over Jersey but the barometer is falling rapidly, currently reading 1002.8mb. This is the lowest barometric pressure for a month and indicates that the depression is heading towards the UK with the rain radar indicating several hours of rainfall, which will be welcomed by local gardeners.

Thursday gave us 10.9 hours of welcome sunshine that meant the temperature eased upwards a little to reach 18.2C, but still 2C below average. The minimum overnight was 8.8C. recorded at 00.40. Subsequently the temperature began to rise as the thicker cloud from Storm Miguel began to drift towards the UK, the thermometer having recovered to 10.6C at 08.00 Friday.

Update on Friday at 15.00: the steady rainfall that fell between 07.00 and 13.35, from Storm Miguel, amounted to 11.1mm. The temperature was depressed around 12C all morning with a little brightness in the afternoon, which lifted that to 14.1C. The centre of the depression is now over southern England with the barometric pressure currently reading 998.2mb, the lowest in a month.

Update at 18.45: further showers arrived from the south just after 6pm. Late afternoon strong sunshine raised the temperature further to a maximum of 17.6C at 17.05, still below average.

I commented yesterday that summer showers, when they arrive from the south or west seem to track around the area giving Marlborough a miss, and yesterday was another example. At 16.30 the rain radar showed two modest sized intense showers developing to the south west but at 16.45 the radar clearly showed them passing to the west and east on a northeasterly track. So no rain again on Wednesday.

The maximum temperatures have been dropping over the past five days with maxima of 25.6C, 22.3C, 19.3C, 18.3C and 17.7C on Wednesday. Last night was the coldest this month when the thermometer dropped to a minimum of 5.8C, which was a significant 4.3C below the average.

Thursday saw the sun shine brightly after dawn with the thermometer, following the cold start, recover to 13.1C at 08.00.