Author: Eric Gilbert

With another 3.5mm of rainfall yesterday the total for August is now 77.8mm with the mean over 32 years standing at 66.2mm. The frequent light showers meant little strong sunshine (0.36 hours) and the first day for a week when the maximum was below the mean for August. This morning the wind has veered into the north west with the sky overcast but the sun trying to break through just after 8am.

Just after 13.30 yesterday the first rumble of thunder was heard as a series of thunderstorms, with continuous thunder, crossed the area. Torrential rain, with small hail in the first storm, produced 30.2mm of precipitation, the wettest day since 27th March. At its peak the rain was falling at a rate of 290mm/hour. Not surprisingly, with minimal brightness in the morning (0.26 hours), that the maximum was 20.9C, average for late August. The last roll of thunder was heard at 16.02 with intermittent, brief sunshine appearing after 17.00. A mild night followed with the minimum at 14.7C, 3C above the mean for late August.

With 13.6 hours of strong sunshine and blue skies for most of the day, yesterday was a real summer’s day. The thermometer rose to 23.4C but dropped very quickly in the evening to a minimum of 8.3C but cloud moving in around 3pm arrested the drop and as a result the temperature rose to 13.4C at 08.00

Yesterday was notable for the very humid air with the humidity level not dropping below 83% when in previous days it regularly dropped to 50% or below. There was very little wind with the maximum get just 8mph adding to the unpleasant atmosphere. A couple of showers overnight, along with a brief shower yesterday produced 1.6mm of precipitation.
Due to the persistent cloud the maximum yesterday was 23.1C, still well above average with the thermometer dropping to 13.6C around 6am this morning, again above average. Strong sunshine after dawn this morning, with minimal cloud, pushed the reading to 15.9C at 08.00

The thermometer peaked at 27.3C yesterday, slightly down on the day before but the subsequent night was very mild with the thermometer dropping no lower than 16.9C, which is 5C above the mean. There were showers between 02.00 and 03.30 amounting to 3.4mm, which brings the total for August to 42.5mm or 64% of the mean. After 12.3 hours of strong sunshine on tuesday, yesterday gave another high reading of 8.7 hours but encroaching cloud late afternoon limited the total.