Although Wednesday was another gloomy day with constant but variable cloud the UV level at 3.2 was the highest since 4th October as the sun’s strength slowly builds. The barometric pressure, reading 1033.3mb at 0800 today, Thursday, has been rising steadily for two days but trapped below it is a thick cloud and with little wind, peak gust yesterday was just 14mph, does little to break up the cloud blanket. With little brightness, the thermometer did rise above average (+1.4C) with a maximum of 11.7C.
That cloud blank meant a very mild night with the thermometer not falling below 8.2C, which was 6.1C above average. However, the penalty is that Thursday morning arrived with the cloud base so low it is draping itself over the Marlborough Downs and Savernake Forest.
The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm read 9.1C today, the warmest since mid-December.