The gardeners on Tuesday would have welcomed the twelve hours of almost continuous rain although those on half term break would not have appreciated the very wet and cool day. The precipitation was never very heavy thus no damage to crops. The rain and drizzle started just after 07.30 and ceased just before 22.00, amounting to 9.0mm, making it the wettest day since 26th February. The additional precipitation took the monthly rainfall to 23.6mm when the 41-year average is 60.4mm.
Not surprisingly, under the thick blanket of cloud and no sunshine, the day was cool with the maximum of 16.0C, logged at 14.01, being 1.3C below average, the first below average since the 15th, in fact there have only been five below maxima this month. Conversely, the cloud provided a duvet to keep in the warmth overnight thus the minimum of 12.2C, logged at 05.20 just after sunrise at 05.00 in Marlborough, was a significant 5.2C above my long-term average.
Wednesday revealed some bright internals at first but cloud built up after around 08.00 from narrow rain bands crossing the area, shown on the rain radar mainly to the south of Marlborough. However, a weak, brief ridge of high pressure will later in the morning bring us a mainly dry day with the possibility of occasional showers.
Tomorrow will see the high pressure sink southwards over France when we will again be in more unstable conditions as the low pressure near Iceland today, sinks south across the UK.
The UK continues to be trapped between the two weather systems. There was a pressure differential at midnight, between the centre of the depression at 990mb and the centre of the anticyclone at 1030mb, thus the wind will continue to be brisk as the air rushes from high pressure to low pressure.