Author: Eric Gilbert

With the wind having veered from the northeast into the northwest on Monday, a warmer direction, it was not surprising to see the temperature recover with a maximum of 19.2C late in the afternoon at 18.00, which was 2.1C above the 35-year average.

The winds were again very light with a peak gust of just 11mph.

Notably, the UV level rose into the ‘very high’ category, the first time this year.

The minimum overnight occurred at 05.30 Tuesday morning with a low of 6.9C which was just 0.2C below the average.

We were greeted with sunshine from dawn on Tuesday morning and the soil temperature at 08.00, at a depth of 5cm, was 12.1C, the highest value this month.

Sunday gave us a bright and sunny morning (5.8 hours) but cloud began to bubble up after about 13.30 obscuring the sun. As the air mass converged from opposite directions the shower clouds began to intensify but just before 16.30 light rain fell for a short while amounting to just 0.8mm with intense rainfall just to the North and West of Marlborough. Watching the rain radar it was interesting to see that there was little movement of these showers, as they intensified and grew, due to the calm conditions.

The thermometer slowly rose above average (+1.5C) with a maximum of 18.6C. Likewise the minimum overnight of 10.0C was above average (+2.9C) being only the fourth above average this month.

Rainfall for May stands at 55.1mm whereas the equivalent rainfall of 48mm has evaporated into the atmosphere from ground sources and plant life.

Monday arrived with a bright sky and the sun struggling to break through, if weakly, just after 08.00.

Although the maximum of 16.9C was nearly 4C above the cold and damp peak on Friday it was 0.2C below average. A notable feature of Saturday was the lack of wind, for many periods the anemometer was still. The strongest movement of air from the north east, cannot call it a gust, was just 8mph.

The thermometer fell below average overnight with a minimum of 5.6C at 05.26 (-1.5C).

Sunday saw weak sushine after dawn with again little wind.

Friday saw the maximum below average again by a significant 4C with a peak of only 13.1C. With a brisk wind from the northeast, gusting to 16mph, there was a wind chill that meant at times it felt 2C bellow the temperature shown on the thermometer.

There were several very light drizzle showers that emanated from the thick cloud cover, but nothing was measurable hence ‘trace’ shown in the records.

By contrast, due to the thick cloud cover overnight, it was the first above average minimum in ten days with the thermometer not falling below 8.9C making it the warmest night this month.

Saturday arrived with the persistent thick cloud although the cloud base at 08.00 was higher than on Friday with the thermometer at that time reading 10.1C and virtually now wind.

Although we had 10.7 hours of sunshine on Thursday it was a cooler day than Wednesday with a maximum of 18.8C, which was 1C above average. The brisk wind, then veered into the Northeast, and reduced solar energy due to thin high cloud, moderated the temperature.

It was a dry day and UV level at the top end of ‘high’.

Initially overnight the thermometer fell away to a minimum of 6.7C at 03.25 but increasing cloud brought on the north east wind meant a recovery to 9.4C at 08.00 on Friday norming.

Thick cloud Friday morning meant the first day this week when we were not greeted by sunshine at dawn. A rain band passed over the area between 06.00 and 06.45 that produced a few drops of rain but insufficient to measure thus recorded as a ‘trace’.