Saturday 4th April
Friday was a dull day with bands of very light drizzle passing over from time to time, but not measurable – just dull and damp occurrences. However, the flow of slightly warmer and moist air on the southwesterly breeze, gusting to 20mph, meant it was the warmest day this month with a maximum of 13.8C, but it was still 0.5C below average.The temperature held up well overnight due to cloud cover again with a minimum of 7.4C at 06.30 early Saturday, which was 3.5C above average.
The start to Saturday revealed another cloudy day with a very light breeze from the south-southwest. This moist and warm flow of air off the Atlantic will likely mean a cloudy day, though the upside will be a maximum close to the early April Average. There is hope that the cloud might break around midday, not guaranteed!
What is guaranteed is that the wind will increase in strength significantly during Saturday afternoon as Storm Dave approaches Scotland. The storm is not forecast to hang around. As it moves off into the North Sea on Sunday a large area of high pressure will begin to assert itself that will mean a brighter day on Sunday, after possible early light rain, but the wind will still be gusty.
Looking forward into next week, the anticyclone will ease away to the east over Scandinavia that will see the wind back into the southwest or east-southeast. This will result in a warmer and drier air off the Continent resulting in fine sunny and warm days on Tuesday and Wednesday with maxima likely well above average for early April.
The buds on my apple trees are beginning to burst into life, responding to the stronger light and warmer days, so this week I will attach appropriate images. Spring is well under way.
N.B. Sadly, for the second time recently, there is a problem with the live transmission of data from my new weather station. It went down at 19.51 last night. There is no indication when normal service will resume. In the intervening time I will post data on the data sheets from my similar but older station that does not go via the ‘cloud’ but direct to a separate console and has given identical or almost identical results over the past year.
A refreshed Met Office weather app now contains beach forecast information and water safety advice for Easter weekend.
An unsettled weather forecast may present challenges for some intending to visit the coast this Easter weekend, and making it even more important to keep checking the weather forecast.
For anyone using the refreshed Met Office weather app, they will not only be able to keep on top of the weather but also access forecast
Annie Shuttleworth is a Met Office weather presenter. She said: “New features to the Met Office weather app, especially tide times and safety advice complement the existing weather forecast information, giving everyone access to beach safety information and the weather forecast within a single view.
We have worked with the RNLI – our water safety partner – to provide a range of information that will help all visitors to get the most out of their seaside visit.”
The new suite of additional features will include:
• Safety advice, including rip current information, wind and wave safety, and general beach safety
• Times for high and low tide,
• Sea information, including lowest and highest wave height for the day
• A card to show when a location is near one of the 500 beaches and a link to that beach forecast
In the next weeks, additional features will be added:
• Sea-surface temperature.
• Hourly breakdown of wave height
• Addition of unit preferences enabling users to select for example between feet and metres for wave height.
The new information is complemented with simple tips to help visitors make the most of their visits to our coastlines and beaches.