Category: Commentary

It was a dry day on Wednesday with many hours of welcome sunshine and the peak UV level of 7.2 was in the ‘Very High’ category for the first tine this year. The brisk wind from the west, gusting to 20mph, limited the warmth so the maximum of 17.1C was exactly average for May.

The past night was similar to the previous night with a minimum of 8.5C being 1.8C above average.

Thursday brought intermittent strong sunshine at the beginning of the day. However, the centre of the depression has migrated to the southern North Sea, as a result the breeze will veer from the west into the northwest, a slightly cooler direction.

The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm has been averaging 12C for the past week so, combined with the rainfall, makes good growing conditions for gardeners – if we could just get on the garden with a couple of consecutive dry days!

Most of Tuesday was fine, with some sunshine, but the warmth meant showers built up in the late afternoon with thunder heard at 17.16 followed by heavy rain that lasted until just after 21.30. Hail was observed at 17.25, classed as ‘small’ by the Meteorological Office, being less than 5mm in diameter. Another 10.1mm of precipitation yesterday took the monthly total to 49.6mm being 82% of the 39-year May average.

The sunshine lifted the temperature to a peak of 18.2C at 16.10 being 1.0C above the average. The overnight minimum of 8.8C was logged at 02.45 early Wednesday that lifted to 11.0C by 08.00, which was 1.9C above the average.

The barometric pressure dropped to 1009.5mb on Tuesday, the lowest since 23rd April, as another depression ganged up on the UK, moving closer in from the Atlantic.

Initially Wednesday arrived with total cloud cover but shortly after 07.40 sunshine broke through the gaps in the variable cloud cover. The centre of the depression this morning is just off the west coast of Scotland, not a deep depression thankfully, and will continue the westerly breeze, but light as yesterday. This unstable airstream will mean that further showers will build as the temperature rises. As the warming air rises it cools and the moisture contained in it condenses into showers. If the updraft is strong the raindrops will rise very high into much cooler air and then form hail.

Monday brought us another wet day with intermittent rain in the morning but a much wider and persistent rain band crossed the area starting at 1835 and ending at 23.30. The daily rainfall amounted to 16.4mm, the wettest day since 31st March (28.7mm) and took the monthly total to 39.5mm being 65% of the 39-year average and only eight days into the month.

Not surprisingly it was a very cool day with the maximum of 14.1C some 3.0C below the 39-year average. Also no surprise that the UV level of 3.8 was rated as ‘Moderate’, the second lowest this month.

Once again the thick cloud cover gave us a mild night with the thermometer not dropping below 11.7C at 05.51 early Tuesday, which was 4.9C above the long-term average.

Tuesday dawned dull and cloudy but dry. There were a couple of very brief glimpses of sunshine just before 08.00 but soon eclipsed by the continuous cloud cover. The temperature at 08.00 read 12.5C, the warmest start to a day at that time since 30th October

There was such a contrast between the very wet Saturday and the dry and sunny Sunday. As a result of the lighter wind, a maximum gust of just 12mph, and sunshine the temperature lifted to 19.0C being 1.9C above the average. Overnight was cooler although still above average (+1.3C) with a low of 8.1C. The UV level peaked at the top end of ‘High’.

Monday first thing revealed a little weak sunshine through a small break in the cloud but shortly afterwards the cloud began to thicken as another weather front approached our area with the first spots of rain being observed at 07.45. The temperature had recovered to 10.9C by 08.00 due to the thickening cloud cover. The wind will be light and from the southwest after backing from the west on Sunday.

The Coronation Day on Saturday was an appalling day with persistent rain for 11 hours amounting to 13.2mm as a depression, with associated weather fronts, travelled along the English Channel and Southern England. That took the monthly total to 23.1mm, after just six days, when the average is 60.5mm. Not only that, the thick, low cloud and lack of sunshine meant a very cool day with the thermometer not rising above 13.9C, which was 3.2C below the average. The UV level of 2.1 was in the ‘Low’ category and the lowest since 29th March.

The overnight minimum was 10.5C at 01.10 early Sunday. This was 4.7C above average thanks to the blanket of cloud retaining any warmth from the previous day.

Sunday dawned dull and gloomy with fog limiting visibility to 400m at 07.00, easing considerably by 08.00, but mist still draping the tops of the Marlborough Downs and the trees in Savernake Forest. Not surprisingly, the humidity was 99% at 08.00, the most humid start to a day since 29th March.