Looking west from St Peter’s Church tower to Marlborough College
Chapel in the back ground
Author: Eric Gilbert
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Marlborough College Chapel
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Temperatures recovering after cold nights
With an air frost and two nights of ground frost it was expected that the soil temperature would dip. However, with direct sunshine on the 3rd of 12.7 hours and much hazy sunshine on the 4th (direct sunshine of 1.8 hours), the 5cm depth soil temperature has recovered. Ultra violet radiation for both these days has been in the ‘High’ category.
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Coldest May night since 2010
At dawn the thermometer dropped to -1.0C, which was the coldest May night since 12th May 2010.
The record lowest temperature for May was set in 1984 with a minimum of -3.5C.
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Monthly Summary for April 2014
April produced a variety of weather from a continuous dry spell of twelve days to three days with substantial rainfall. The total precipitation was 83.6mm being 138% of the long-term average. The wettest day was the 25th when 20.1mm was recorded.
It was a warm month with the mean 1.4C above the long-term average, which was principally due to warmer nights resulting from much cloud cover retaining warmth from the daytime. There was only one air frost when the thermometer dropped to -1.6C. around daybreak on the 19th.
Because of the cloud cover the solar energy total was 86% of the long-term average and global sunshine amounted to 265 hours, which is 30 hours less than the figure for April 2013. Direct sunshine totals for the end of the month were depressingly low, except for 12.9 hours on the 16th. No measurable direct sunshine was recorded on the 20th, 22nd and 25th.
The last week was notable for the light winds except for the strongest gust of 34mph on the 26th. -
Almost an inch of rain in 24 hours
The total rainfall amount for the 24 hours to 0800 today was 20.1mm. This is the highest daily amount since 14th February and brings the total for the month to 55.9mm, which is 92% of the 30-year average. The thermometer struggled to a maximum of only 10.7 C. as weak sunshine broke through in the late evening. The 30-year average is 13.7C. With constant rain for almost 10 hours during daylight hours it is not surprising that no sunshine registered for this period.