Author: Eric Gilbert

Friday was another overcast day but a little milder. During the afternoon there were brighter periods and 15 minutes of sunshine that lifted the temperature closer to average with a maximum of 16.3C.The wind, having backed a few degrees, came from a more northerly direction for most of the day and was much lighter with a maximum of 14mph.

Although Thursday night brought the wettest 24-hour period for almost four years the total for May is 43.6mm, still 17.5mm below the 34-year average.

The thick cloud persisted overnight giving another mild night with the minimum 4.5C above average with the lowest point of 11.4C.

Saturday dawned with fog limiting visibility to 400m and occasional drizzle in the breeze and now back into the north east.

Although Thursday started with light rain it soon stopped giving a cool, moist day with occasional spots of rain from thick cloud. As a result of the dense cloud, temperatures were depressed with a maximum of only 14.1C, which was 2.8C below average and down 5.8C on Wednesday.

The UV level, not surprisingly, was the lowest for a month as was solar energy and we endured only the second day in May without sunshine.

Just after 16.30 the rain started with a vengeance and continued for over four hours resulting in a total of 31.9mm, which just after 8pm was falling at the rate of 31mm/hour. There was a clap of thunder and lightning at 19.09. Looking back through the records I find that this was the wettest day since 18th August 2014 when 40.6mm of rainfall was recorded.

The low cloud persisted overnight that meant a mild night with the thermometer not falling below 11.6C.

Friday has started where Thursday left off with thick cloud lowering over the Marlborough Downs but thankfully the wind has dropped becoming light and currently no rain is falling.

Wednesday produced another sunny day with 9.6 hours, the lowest total for seven days, which was much cooler as the northeasterly wind was strong all day with gusts to 24mph.

The maximum temperature was down again to 19.9C, still 3C above the average.

Overnight thick rain bearing cloud drifted in from the east with light rain just after 6am amounting to 0.6mm by 08.00.

Thursday update at 18.40: only second day in May without sunshine also continuous steady rainfall for past two hours.

Wettest day since August 2016 and still raining

Tuesday gave us another 10 hours of sunshine bringing the total for May to 212.8 hours. The average over the past four years, when this instrument was installed, is 109 hours with a peak of 130 hours so May 2018 is well above average.

The northeasterly wind strengthened yesterday with occasions when it peaked at 20mph thus moderating the temperature with a maximum of 21.7C, down 2C on Monday but still 5C above average.

Overnight the wind from the northeast brought in cloud cover from the North Sea that was quite thick at dawn. However by 08.00 it was beginning to show signs of thinning but no sunshine. The thermometer fell away to a minimum of 9.2C, which was 2C above average.

Monday saw the temperature rise again to a maximum of 23.5C, which was 6.7C above the 34-year average but saw a considerable drop when a heavy shower arrived at 16.41. The total rainfall was 1.9mm bringing the May total to just 11mm when the average is 61.1mm.

With some cloud cover it was a much milder night allowing the thermometer to fall away to 9.1C, the warmest night for a week and 2C above average.

Tuesday has arrived with more sunshine and the temperature at 08.00 recovering to 13.9C, the second warmest start to a day this month.