Author: Eric Gilbert

The ‘Cold’ weather front arrived just before midday yesterday bringing a dramatic change to the weather. The light rain that started an hour before became heavier, the wind abruptly veered from the south into the north just after midday, gusting to 23mph, and the temperature dropped from a high of 7.9C to 2.2C with a wind chill factor equivalent to -1C.  All this occurred as the barometric pressure, that had been falling for two days, abruptly starting climbing again. The rainfall for the past twenty-four hours amounted to 5.4mm.
Overnight, as the cloud cover cleared, the thermometer dropped to 0C with a ground frost. This morning is dawning clear with the sun seen to be rising above the horizon as I write this item. The gloom and thick cloud of the past few days has disappeared, thankfully, with very clear visibility.

N.B. I apologise that the Daily Statistics page will not be available for a few days as the website has been in the process of being re-designed. Various other pages are being updated.

Yesterday was another in the succession of gloomy days with low cloud over the Marlborough Downs and misty conditions. There was a light shower mid-morning and another in the early hours of today. The maximum was 7.8C, close to the mean for December but due to the cloud cover overnight the minimum was 4.6C, which had risen to 6.8C at the time of readings at 08.00. However, with the barometer falling to its lowest reading for December of 1015.2mb at 08.00 today, the weather is about to change. There were indications yesterday as there was more movement of air with a maximum gust of 16mph, the strongest for almost a week.
The total rainfall for December was 22.6mm, which is just 25% of the long-term mean, or 69mm below. In between the cloudy days we did enjoy 38 hours of strong sunshine.
A more detailed analysis for December and the year of 2016 will follow tomorrow.

Latest at 16.00 on Sunday 1st
The ‘Cold’ weather front arrived just before midday bringing a dramatic change to the weather. The light rain that started an hour before became heavier, the wind abruptly veered from the south into the north, gusting to 23mph and the temperature dropped from a high of 8C to 2C with a wind chill factor equivalent to -1C.

With a maximum of 8.1C yesterday, just above the mean, and 2.2 hours of strong sunshine it was a much better day. Again there was no rain, the fifth consecutive dry day with the monthly total still standing at 21.6mm, which is 70mm below the 32-year mean. The lack of rain this month and also in October can be seen in the very low state of the Rivers Kennet and Og running through Marlborough.
Low cloud, giving misty conditions, has returned overnight. The stagnant air trapped under the intense high pressure will take time to lift and clear as the is air very still. There was a high of 9mph yesterday in mid-afternoon but over the past twenty-four hour there has been very little movement.

After so many dreary, foggy and overcast days this month it was a treat to have 5.77 hours of strong sunshine yesterday making it the sunniest day this month. As a result, with virtually no wind, it pushed the thermometer to a maximum of 7.9C just after 2pm, average for December. There were periods when the air was calm with the maximum gust of just 9mph at 13.06. Frost set in overnight with the thermometer dropping to a low of -2.5C at 07.08 this morning.
The temperature this morning has recovered sightly to -1.6C at 08.00 with evidence of limited valley fog beginning to thicken and cloud to move in. It is interesting to note that the temperature, humidity and barometric pressure details at the time of reading today (08.00) are identical to those which were obtained yesterday.

Latest at 08.45: Fog (freezing) now thick with visibility down to 100m.

Yesterday was memorable for two weather related reasons. The thermometer struggled to reach a maximum of 1.4C at 13.30, which made it the coldest day since 12th December 2012 that registered a maximum of 1.2C. Fog was another feature that dominated the past twenty-four hours. There was fog at dawn that lifted only to return mid-morning with variable visibility but often down to 300m. During the evening this lifted to return before 11pm but had cleared at dawn today. One hour of strong sunshine was logged not surprisingly little wind movement occurred due to the high pressure with the strongest breeze recorded at 9 mph.
This morning is clear with a sharp frost as the thermometer reads -1.6C at 08.00.