Author: Eric Gilbert

The first dry day after a week of rain also provided the greatest number of global hours of sunshine, a total of 13.0 hours. The UV rating nudged into the ‘Very High’ group. The subsequent night was marked by very low temperatures, dropping to just 3.4C, in the early hours (03.45) before cloud moved in.
The May rainfall now totals 88.5mm, which is 152% of the 30-year average and the sixth wettest on record.

The daily rainfall up to 0800 today totalled 11.9mm which brings the figure for May to 69.8mm, which is 120% of the average for May with several days of unsettled weather to come. Thunder was heard at 1345 yesterday as a storm centre passed to the east of us.
Not surprisingly with winds from a more easterly direction and just one hour of direct sunshine, temperatures were depressed on thursday – a maximum of just 16.1C was reached just after midday.

Yesterday proved to be the hottest day since early September when the thermometer peaked at 25.1C. Due to cloud cover over night it was quite warm with a minimum of 12.8C. A brief shower produced 0.4mm of rain.
The rate of evapotranspiration increased again yesterday and with the equivalent of 4.91mm of water vapour escaping back into the atmosphere it was the highest rate since mid July 2013.