Category: Commentary

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.

Sunday continued the recent trend of dull, dry days with the thermometer again above average (+2.2C) with a peak of 10.2C. The past night was also very mild with the thermometer not dropping below 8.4C (+6.1C).

Monday began as previous days with overcast skies being dull and mild. The southwesterly breeze continues as the anticyclone, although slipping southeastwards, still influences our weather with mild, air being brought up from the Atlantic.

The anticyclone centred over France, and slowly moving eastwards, continued on Saturday the southwesterly airstream that brought the very mild air. The thermometer rose to a maximum of 10.6C being 2.6C above the average bur dropped very little overnight, to minimum of 8.6C at 08.00 Sunday.

Sunday, as previous days under the moist airstream, arrived dull and overcast. The barometric pressure has fallen from its very high reading of 1040.8mb yesterday to 1034.7mb today as the anticyclone eases away. We have had eight days this month with no UV value registered, which is a little above the December average.

The anticyclone now over France continued to feed moist, warm for over the country on Friday on a very light southwesterly that saw the thermometer, during daylight hours, climb just above average (+0.9C) with a maximum of 8.8C. During the night the warmth continued to build with the thermometer reaching 9.4C by 08.00 Saturday making it equal warmest start to a day this month.

Saturday once again brought us a dull and dark start to the new day. The barometric pressure read 1040.0mb at 08.00, the highest since 6th February. The very quiet air movement from the southwest will continue.

Thursday was another grey and dull day with drizzle in the morning amounting to 0.4mm. That took the monthly total to 70.3mm when the 39-year average is 92.7mm.

The temperature eased up a little from the previous cold day, thanks to the very light southwesterly air movement, with a maximum of 8.6C at 14.40 being 0.6C above the average. The evening saw the thermometer slowly descend but more quickly after 02.00 as broken cloud appeared allowing the temperature to drop to its lowest at 07.56 Friday with a minimum of 2.3C, which was exactly average for December.

Friday arrived with broken cloud that soon filled in. The significant feature of today is that the barometric pressure has been rising significantly again over the last twenty-four hours with a reading of 1036.3mb at 08.00, which was the highest pressure since 4th February (1038.1mb). This is due to a large anticyclone centred over the Bay of Biscay, current pressure reading of 1041mb, which is throwing a ridge of high pressure over the UK.