Author: Eric Gilbert

With 4.19 hours of strong sunshine, yesterday was the second sunniest after 9th December (4.28 hours). But the advancing storm brought increasing winds overnight with a maximum gust of 46 mph just after 7am. The record gust for December was set on 23rd December in 2013 with a maximum gust of 52mph.

With only four dry days this month it is surprising that the total rainfall for December is much below the long-term average of 91.8mm with the current total of just 56.7mm (62%). Yesterday gave us a brief glimmer of strong sunshine in the early morning of 0.02 hours, the first for four days. With three days left of December the mean temperature is going to be in the order of 5 or 6 degrees above the long-term average, which would be a record.

Overnight from saturday into sunday the thermometer did not drop below 12.8C, which is 11C above the mean for December and exceeds the previous record for the highest December minimum of 11.5C set in 1994.

Yesterday was another in the line of the overcast, wet and windy days that have been so common this month. There was no break in the cloud for any sunshine, rainfall amounted to 3mm and wind strength rose during the evening, gusting to 35mph. It was the lowest figure for solar energy since 1st January 2015. The thermometer rose during the daylight hours and maintained a minimum of 13.3C overnight, which is 6C above the mean for December.

Yesterday was the brightest day this month with 4.3 hours of indirect sunshine and highest daily solar energy. Rain has returned this morning with winds gusting to 35mph but the thermometer did not drop below 10C overnight when the mean minimum is 1C.