Author: Eric Gilbert

The maximum temperature over the past twenty-four hours was at 05.50 this morning, not during daylight hours yesterday, with the minimum of 6.6C occurring just after midnight. It was a day that brought 0.6 hours of strong sunshine after four overcast days.
The thermometer is at its highest this morning, for my 08.00 readings, since Christmas Day with a temperature of 9.0C. Also the barometer just before dawn reached a low of 1008.1mb, the lowest barometric pressure for two months.

After another dreary day with intermittent drizzle and light rain, totalling 1.3mm, late afternoon the sky began to lighten. As a result, the temperature dropped from a high of 9.2C, which is 2.3C above the mean, to a minimum of 1.9 very early this morning at 01.01 briefly giving a light ground frost. Since then the thermometer has recovered to 5.2C at 08.00.
Yesterday was the windiest day for over two weeks, after the recent very still conditions under the intense high pressure, with a maximum gust of 27mph just after 2pm. The barometric pressure was at its lowest just after midnight, at 1009.9mb, and is now rising. As a result the wind has veered into the west giving a brighter morning, if short lived, with much lower humidity, currently 92% after 99% for several mornings at 08.00.

The anticyclone maintained pressure over the UK yesterday giving a very still day with the anemometer, which is 4 metres above the ridge of the building, registering the strongest movement of air at just 4mph. The day was marked by very thick cloud that was low enough to cover the Marlborough Downs with a cloud base that occasionally lifted to improve visibility from 200m to 1000m until early afternoon. Mid-afternoon the cloud thinned to give a brief bright interval that just triggered the sunshine recorder before falling out again. The thermometer gave a maximum of 9.6C yesterday some 3C above the mean for January.
The minimum overnight occurred just before midnight with a reading of 6.7C but then started to rise heralding the arrival of yet another weather front. The wind has backed into the south and picked up with a gust of 17mph as the barometer dropped 10mb over the past twenty-four hours. The cloud base has lifted improving visibility markedly.

The legacy of the warm front on Friday is still with us as yesterday was another with fog at dawn slowly lifting into murky, misty conditions with occasional drizzle. There was minimal rainfall of 0.4mm but the most noticeable feature was the temperature. During the day the thermometer rose to a maximum of 10.1C after midday at 13.23, over 3C above the 32-year mean. This fell a little during the afternoon but maintained around 8C throughout the night.
The high pressure is still with us this morning providing little movement of the stagnant air, yesterday strongest short breeze was 9mph, and is doing nothing to lift or move on the thick cloud.

The warm front that traversed the country yesterday, and is still lingering near us, has meant a change from clear frosty weather to thick cloud and fog this morning.
The temperature slowly rose from freezing point yesterday morning to around 4C during the daytime. However, during yesterday evening the effect of the warm front was felt and heard as rain started to fall, intermittently at first and the thermometer started to rise again. The maximum this morning is 8.2C, the warmest start to a day for a fortnight. The rainfall total over the past twenty-four hours amounted to 8.2mm, the wettest day since 10th December. The visibility this morning is down to 100m.