Category: Commentary

Friday brought another dry day and just sufficient brightness to register on the UV meter at 0.6, obviously very low. A peak of 10.7C (2C down on the Friday peak) was again above average (+2.7C) followed by another very mild might with a low of 8.1C (+5.9C).

Saturday revealed a predominantly cloudy sky with a brisk westerly. The recent anticyclone has edged a little southwards, just off Portugal. A deep low pressure just of Iceland is beginning to influence our weather but the westerly stream between the two pressure systems will continue for much of the day. The low will close in over Scotland on Sunday with more disturbed weather.

Thursday by day and night was exceptionally mild, bot well above average with extremes of 12.9C (+5.0C) and 9.4C (+7.1C). It was also another dry day, only the seventh this month. The notable feature was the strength of the wind, gusting to a peak of 37mph, thanks to Storm Pia travelling across the north of Scotland.

At 03.27 Friday we turned the corner and very, very slowly the days now begin to get longer.

Friday arrived with a mainly cloudy sky, just the odd brief break, with the wind still coming principally from the west northwest later in the day from the west, as we begin to come under the influence of an intense high anticyclone mid-Atlantic, The barometric pressure at 08.00 read 1014.3mb, up 6mb since Thursday. The wind will be less strong today, thankfully.

Wednesday was another very mild day with a peak of 11.2C being 3.4C above the average thanks to the drift of warm Atlantic on a brisk westerly breeze gusting to 27mph. The thermometer hovered around 10C all day and into the night but lifted a degree after 05.00 Thursday. It was a dry day with the first recorded UV level in a week.

Thursday dawned dull with total, thick cloud cover thanks to the advance cloud associated with Storm Pia, moving east over Scotland, named by the Dutch meteorological office. The wind has been slowly rising in strength since 05.00 and veering a few degrees into the west northwest.

The wind, having veered into the northwest on Tuesday, meant a cooler day than Monday although the maximum of 11.8C was 3.8C above the 39-year average. With a clearer sky overnight the thermometer dropped to 3.6C at 20.27 Tuesday evening before beginning to slowly rise again to reach 7.0C at 08.00 Wednesday.

Another 7.2mm of rainfall took the monthly total to 83.1mm, some 10mm below the 39-year average.

Wednesday dawned with a clear sky but cloud from a warm front began to drift across on the light northwesterly so that by 08.00 there was total cloud cover. An anticyclone in mid-atlantic is now beginning to influence our weather with a consequent rise in pressure, up to 1022.0mb at 08.00. This will also see the wind back into the west for much of the day.

Monday daylight hours into the past evening and night were very mild that saw the thermometer rise from around 11C to a maximum of 12.0C at 03.00 Tuesday making it the warmest start to a day since 13th November. This was due to the recent stream of mild air from the southwest

The rain began to fall just after midnight triggering the automatic rain gauge at 00.15. An amount of 5.6mm of precipitation was measured in the 5″ copper met office rain gauge at 08.00, that took the monthly rainfall toll to 75.9mm that being 82% of the 39-year average.

Tuesday was even darker to start the day under the very thick, low cloud base with rain continuing to fall. The recent anticyclone has moved further way with the barometric pressure at 08.00 down another 10mg with a current reading of 1019.2mb. Two cold fronts have passed our way since midnight that will see the wind temporarily veer from the southwest into the northwest so temperatures will be slightly down on recent maxima.