Author: Eric Gilbert

With frequent showers in the afternoon, after several hours of rainfall in the morning, it was not surprising to find that the maximum temperature was only 14.2C, the coolest day this month. The rainfall for the past twenty-four hours was 5.2mm bringing the May total to 41.6mm (69% of average). There was a little strong sunshine, amounting to 0.8 hours, in the late afternoon as the weather front cleared to the east.
This morning broke with minimal cloud and strong sunshine giving a temperature of 11.2C at 08.00

The five consecutive days with warm, dry weather came to an end yesterday. There were 2.95 hours of strong sunshine in the morning but increasing cloud brought light rain in the late afternoon. In the early hours of this morning the rain band arrived producing 4.8mm of rain in the last twenty-four hours and just before 08.30 a more intense, narrow band of rain arrived. The maximum yesterday was 16.9C combined with the highest UV level for ten months that briefly was rated ‘Very High’. The minimum overnight was 10.1C.

The strong sunshine total yesterday was 9.91 hours, which boosted the maximum to 18.3C that is 2C above the average for May. Overnight the clear sky meant that the thermometer dropped steadily until just after 02.30 when fog began to form. At dawn the fog visibility was down to 200mm but then readily began to disperse so that at 07.30 the sun began to break through. The minimum overnight was 7.1C that had risen to 9.7C at 8.00 as the sun’s strength increased.

Sunday brought a warmer day and lighter winds resulting in a maximum of 17.2C, just above average, with 6.13 hours of strong sunshine. Clear skies overnight meant another cool night, but not so cold as the previous, with a minimum of 5.4C. The day dawned with strong sunshine and minor cloud amounts producing a temperature of 9.8C at 08.00.

With 10.63 hours of strong sunshine yesterday it is not surprising that I recorded the highest solar energy in twenty-four hours since 9th July 2015. The UV level was maintained at a High level. With a clear sky last night the temperature fell continuously to record a cold night with a minimum of 2.0C at 05.22. After early low cloud cleared, strong sunshine broke through so the temperature recovered to 9.1C at 08.00