Wednesday 21st October
The rain and drizzle during the morning and afternoon of Tuesday produced a total of 16.6mm of precipitation that increased the monthly total to 47.6mm, which lifted it to 52% of my 43-year record. The continuous thick cloud cover resulted in a maximum of just 11.4C, being 3.5C below average. The air was cool from a northerly breeze that also resulted in a minimum of 6.9C at 01.20 early Wednesday, which was also below average at -0.6C.
Wednesday began dark as the next rain band approached with the first rain beginning to fall at 07.55, and will continue for much of the morning from an intense area of rain. My anemometers, at two heights, were stationary at 08.00, but the wind from the west, is likely to become brisk as the afternoon progresses.
The centre of the depression has edged across the country and is currently over eastern England with a very low centre of pressure, hence the disturbed weather. The local reading at 08.00 was 997.4mb, the lowest barometric pressure since 4th June.
There will be a brief respite on Thursday morning and early afternoon, with welcome sunshine, although temperatures will continue below average.
We are now in an unsettled period of Atlantic weather that over the next few days will see the Jet Stream push across the country numerous weather fronts that includes Storm Austen. There is now more certainty in the track of this storm that will produce lengthy intense rain Thursday night and Friday with very strong, gusty winds, possibly up to 40mph.
As the centre of the storm tracks across the country the wind will make an almost complete circle in direction, from southwest to southeast and then abruptly on Friday to north and finally northwest.
As storm Austen moves eastwards towards the North Sea, the forecast charts indicate that another deep depression will arrive from the Atlantic, this time further north, over Scotland, that is likely to result in a wet Saturday with strong winds as the pressure gradient will still be considerable between the low and an anticyclone to the south.
Storms are most often named when potentially damaging winds are forecast, but can also be named for flooding rain or disruptive snow.
They were first named to help bring public attention to episodes of severe weather, to help people prepare to avoid the worst impacts by planning ahead.
In Europe, there are five storm naming groups created from the meteorological agencies based in a similar geographic location.
The UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands form the western storm-naming group which started naming storms in 2015.
Weather systems are named by the the UK’s Met Office, Ireland’s Met Éireann and Netherland’s KNMI based on expected weather impacts as well as how likely those are.