Wednesday 23rd September
Tuesday was a disappointing day, being spoilt by a blanket of cloud that developed over our area, and to the north, whilst just twenty miles to the south there were many hours of almost wall to wall sunshine, right down to the south coast. There was a little brightness mid-afternoon before the cloud thickened again late afternoon. However, the almost total calm under the warmer air that had previously arrived from the south, meant a warm day with the maximum of 23.4C being 4.4C above average. The past night was mild with a minimum of 11.5C at 06.20 on Wednesday.
The very significant feature of Tuesday was the almost complete absence of any air movement for many continuous hours.
The sun did not at first appear on Wednesday morning due to a band of cloud on the eastern horizon, however, just after 08.00 the sun rose above the cloud and began to shine strongly with the promise of a warm and dry day ahead, but no sustained strong sunshine.
A cold front will cross from the north as the morning progresses, that will bring cloudier conditions, which will significantly limit the sunshine after around mid-morning turning into sunny periods. We are currently in a clear area between cloud banks that will soon fill in. Later today the breeze will pick up and veer from the west into the north.
Tomorrow the high will emigrate towards the east that will see the breeze pick up a little and swing from the north to come from the south, still with light winds. Being still under high pressure it will mean another fine and dry day and likely be very warm. In fact there is no indication of rain before Sunday, at the moment.
The forecast pressure charts indicate that the current high pressure will slowly migrate eastwards as we approach Friday and Saturday when a new ridge of high pressure will arrive from the southwest continuing the run of calm, warm and dry weather.
As today is the autumnal equinox, the start of astronomical autumn, I will start a new series of autumnal images. The leaves are slowly beginning to change colour with the first batch of pictures taken at Stourhead in Wiltshire.