Author: Eric Gilbert

Wednesday brought us typical April weather with sunshine, amounting to 6.74 hours, and variable cloud although only one shower occurred, which produced just 0.1mm of rainfall as the main shower bands passed to the north and south of this area.

It was the coolest day since 15th April with a maximum of only 13.7C, just below average. There was a strong gust of wind, reaching 28mph as the squall passed over.

Clearer skies overnight meant a cooler night with the thermometer falling to a minimum of 5.7C, down a degree on yesterday, although this had recovered to 8.9C at 08.00 this morning.

The cooler westerly wind continues this morning with strong sun after dawn that with a higher barometric pressure suggests less cloud during the day before the next weather front arrives this evening.

Tuesday was the first day since 13th April that the sun logger was not activated. However, there were bright intervals that lifted the thermometer to a maximum of 15.4C, being 1.4C above the average.

Light, short showers of drizzle occurred at 4pm and just after 6pm with more between 8 and 9pm. However the total precipitation was small measuring just 0.5mm.

Wednesday has dawned with broken, hazy sunshine after a low of 6.7C at 05.56, which was the coolest night for ten days but still 3C above the long-term average. At 08.00 the thermometer had risen to 8.4C.

Wednesday update at 13.31: short, sharp shower dropped temperature by 2C to 11.1C with wind gusting to 25mph and wind chill making it feel like 10C, average being 14C

Wednesday update at 16.10: first below average day, with a maximum of only 13.7C, for 10 days.

Monday was the first full day with the change in wind direction from the warm southerlies to predominant westerly winds. This resulted in a much cooler day than those experienced last week with a maximum of 14.8C, which was 5C down on the maximum for Sunday and 12C down on the record set last Thursday. However, this was 0.8C above the April average.

Sunshine was much less in evident on Monday with just 1.86 hours of strong sunshine being 8 hours less than enjoyed on Sunday. When the sun did show itself the UV level rose to 6.1, the highest since August 28th last year.

Overnight cloud meant that the thermometer fell to a minimum of 10.1C, much warmer than previous nights and 6C above average.

Tuesday has dawned with moderate cloud cover in advance of the next weather front.

Tuesday update at 18.15: after two dry days short bursts of heavy drizzle occurred at 16.00 and 18.05, lasting around 10 minutes on each occasion, ahead of imminent rain band.

Early Sunday afternoon the wind slowly veered from the south to the west with the consequence that the very warm air from Iberia was cut off and replaced by much cooler air from the Atlantic.

The temperature reached a maximum of 19.9C, down 3C on Saturday but still 6C above the April average. Overnight the thermometer dropped steadily away to reach a minimum of 8.0C, the coolest night for a week, but also above average by 4.2C.

Sunday was a dry day with 9.86 hours of strong sunshine and the UV level easing a little higher with a reading of 5.8.

Monday has dawned with broken sunshine and the thermometer easing upward to read 9.7C at 08.00.

Monday update at 16.15: westerly winds bring cooler weather with the maximum of 14.8C down 5C on Sunday and 12C below record set last Thursday, but 0.8C above average.

The very warm air brought to us on the southerly winds from the Azores region gave us another warm day on Saturday with the maximum edging a little higher than Friday giving a maximum of 22.9C being almost 9C above the long-term average.

As often happens in these weather conditions, thunderstorms arrived in the early evening and again between 1am and 2am. The first lightning was observed at 20.28 with frequent flashes for over an hour. The second wave came after midnight. Heavy rain rain fell starting at 21.30 with another lighter shower just after 1am.

The total rain amounted to 4.3mm bringing the total for April to 52.7mm, which is 91% of the April average.

The sun was shining brightly as it moved above the horizon this morning with the promise of more hazy sunshine today.

With a minimum temperature of 11.8C overnight it was the warmest night since 25th October and the ground temperature at a depth of 5cm was 13.3C at 08.00.

Sunday update at 20.30: a change in wind direction from southerly to westerly early afternoon starts to moderate temperature. Maximum down 3C from Saturday but still above average.