Author: Eric Gilbert

Another dry day yesterday with reduced strong sunshine of 3.76 hours, which fell away as cloud drifted in mid-afternoon. However, the mild southerly air pushed the thermometer to a maximum of 20.9C, which is 2C above the average. It was a very mild night with a minimum of 17C until just before 3pm when a cold front arrived from the west bringing heavy rain amounting to 10.2mm. As the front moved away the wind veered from the south to a more westerly direction, the rain ceased and the temperature dropped to 12.7C at 08.00

Yesterday gave us another warm and sunny day with 7.33 hours of strong sunshine. The thermometer dropped steadily after dark, from a maximum of 18.8C, to a minimum of 10C before midnight but then began a steady recovery to 14.3C at 08.00. This was due to the warm, moist southerly air. It was also noticeable that in contrast to previous nights, when the wind dropped out completely, that there was a light breeze throughout the night.

With pressure rising yesterday, at the highest this month at 08.00 today of 1024.4mb, it was not surprising that the sun returned yesterday with 6.67 hours of strong sunshine and a maximum of 18.7C,  average for September.  Clear skies overnight meant that the thermometer tumbled to the second lowest reading this month of 6.4C at 04.26. This meant that it was the coldest September morning of this year with a reading of 7.9C at 08.00.

Strong sunshine was evident from dawn today.

After two days without sunshine and heavy cloud yesterday brought brighter skies and 0.5 hours of strong sunshine. The day was predominantly dry except for a short sharp shower, amounting  to 0.8mm, that drifted in from the south just before 2pm. Highs and lows were 19.2C and 12.1C. Another day under relatively high pressure that was calm, wind gusts no higher than 10mph except for a brief period around 4pm when a maximum gust of 19mph was recorded.

Tuesday was brighter but for the second consecutive day there was no sunshine and below average maximum.  UV levels are now in the moderate category. The clear skies that heralded the nighttime were obscured as cloud arrived after midnight wth the minimum of 12.3C at 02.24, thereafter the temperature rose slowly to 13.1C at 08.00.