Author: Eric Gilbert

Yesterday morning brought us welcome strong sunshine totalling 3.73 hours. Clouds moved in from the west after midday and several prolonged showers produced 5.2mm. The sunshine did boost the maximum in the morning to 10.9C, just above the average for March but breaks in the cloud cover overnight meant the thermometer dropped to 3.2C. This morning variable thin cloud is obscuring the sunshine from time to time.

The recent storm ‘Katie’ gradually departed during yesterday morning and as the cloud cleared we enjoyed 2.45 hours of sunshine combined with gradually falling wind speeds. The maximum temperature yesterday was 10.6C, average for March, and an additional 0.6mm of rain fell during the day. The total rainfall for March is now 89.3mm, 158% of the long-term average or +32.8mm. Overnight the thermometer dropped to 4.0C and dawn broke with welcome sunshine.

As predicted storm ‘Katie’ brought many hours of rain totalling 30.7mm bringing the total for March to 88.7mm, which so far makes it the third wettest March since my records began in 1984. As Katie approached a peak gust of 48mph was recorded just after midnight, at 00.43. The barometric pressure continued to fall with a low of 970.3mb at 05.18, the lowest reading since 8th November 2010. Shortly afterwards the wind veered from the south to the west and the temperature dropped over 5C in an hour when wet snow was observed in the rainfall.

We endured many hours of rain and drizzle yesterday amounting to 5.5mm, which brings the total for March to 58.0mm, now just above the average. The other noticeable feature was the increasing wind strength that peaked at 39mph around 16.30. At daybreak today the last of the cloud was moving away and the sun reappeared with a minimum temperature of 4.7C.

Yesterday brought a real touch of Spring with 11.36 hours of strong sunshine, the sunniest day since 6th September, and the warmest day since mid-November. Overnight the cloud cover and air now coming from a southerly direction gave us the warmest night this month, with the thermometer reading 8.4C at 08.00.