Author: Eric Gilbert

With maxima of 12.6C and 12.1C on Thursday and Friday respectively, the arctic blast from the northeast, starting early today, has dropped the temperature by almost 13C.

On Saturday morning the temperature began to fall just after 3am to reach 0.8C at 08.00. However, the thermometer only tells one aspect of this severe cold blast as the wind just after 9am gusted to 36mph. Currently the ambient temperature is -0.1C and the wind chill makes it feel more like -6C.

After sunny and warm weather on Friday, the wind began to swing into the northeast shortly after midnight to change from a mild, warm air mass to a very cold and dry air mass.

Earlier this morning there was a snow shower with more in the air from 11am

Saturday update at 16.30: air temperature -0.9C, wind chill feels like – 6C. Light snow showers for 7 hours but little on ground with wind a dropping a little.

Saturday update at 18.30: air temperature at-1.7C with wind chill now -7C. Wind abated slightly gusting to 30mph and 10 minute average of 12mph. Air humidity still low at 87%.

Saturday update at 20.00: currently snowing much heavier resulting in a covering of at least 1 – 2cm. Temperature now -2.1C.

Wednesday stated with a bright morning and almost an hour of sunshine but increasing cloud around midday obscured any lasting brightness. The warmest time was at 15.26 with a maximum of 11.1C, just above average.

Rain from the next weather front started to fall just after 22.00 last night and continued for seven hours, being particularly heavy between 3 and 4am this morning. The past twenty-four hours gave us 13.4mm. This brings the total for March to 73.2mm being 13mm above the 34-year average.

After the very windy day on Wednesday, with gusts to 33mph, Thursday has arrived with overcast skies but little wind. The minimum yesterday was 6.3C, which occurred at 08.00 on Wednesday morning making this the second warmest night this month and 4C above average.

Tuesday brought us 3.1 hours of sunshine, the sunniest for almost a week, which lifted the temperature to a maximum of 11.8C being 1.3C above the average. The breeze was light, maximum gust of only 11mph, which made the afternoon very pleasant.

It was a dry day, the first for over a week and the UV level reached 2.3, the highest this month as occurred on Sunday.

Overnight the thermometer initially fell away to a minimum of 2.6C at midnight but during the early hours began to recover so that at 08.00 today the reading was 6.3C.

Wednesday has arrived with broken cloud and brief periods of sunshine.

Wednesday update at 14.15: temperature of 10.3C but wind chill makes it feel like 8C as wind gusts to 30mph.

Monday was a miserable day with almost continuous rain throughout the morning, easing up in the afternoon and becoming intermittent from the very wide and slow moving rain band.

I recorded 4.4mm of rainfall yesterday that now brings the March total to 58.8mm being 1mm above the 34-year average.

There was just one very brief spell of sunshine in the afternoon lasting 3 minutes.

The rain and thick cloud depressed the temperatures on Monday with a maximum of just 9.1C, which was 1.5C below the average. This occurred as the influence of the depression began to wain when it drifted eastwards and as a consequence the wind backed into the northwest. Overnight the temperature very slowly fell away reaching a minimum of 2.3C at 06.42, being almost exactly average for March.

Tuesday has dawned overcast with very still wind conditions.

Sunday gave us sunshine during the morning with 1.5 hours but soon after midday the sky began to cloud over with rain arriving at 16.00, being intense for a 10 minute period at 16.30. Overnight the rain continued producing a total of 16.7mm, the wettest day since 14th February. This brings the total for March to 54.5mm being just 3mm below the 34-year March average.

The thermometer rose to a maximum of 11.7C at 11.59 on Sunday, being 1.1C above average but then dropping back, due to the cloud cover, giving a reading of 7.6C this morning at 08.00, which was 5C above the March average.

During the brief sunny morning the UV level rose to 2.3, the highest reading since 24th October.

Currently a depression is overhead central England that is slow moving, rotating in an anticlockwise direction, so that the wind later today will change into a west to north westerly as the low pressure exits east. This weather system is slow moving so we can expect much more rain today.