Category: Commentary

Sunday was best forgotten due to the continuous low, thick cloud that brought occasional short drifts of drizzle in the morning, not measurable, but recorded as a trace. However, the thermometer climbed to a maximum of 8.2C, which was the first above average day (+1.2C) since the 14th.

The overnight minimum of 4.0C was also above average (+2.7C), the frost since the 16th.

Monday, thankfully, began much brighter than previous days with minimal, thin cloud. The barometric pressure has continued to ease downwards with a reading of 1027.1mb at 08.00, still relatively high, under the ridge extending from the west.

The overcast sky with thick, low cloud meant a gloomy, dull day on Saturday. With no sunshine and a cool westerly air movement, too weak to call a breeze, it was a distinctly cool day with the thermometer only rising to 4.6C, which was 2.4C below the average.

It was another dry day with minimal UV registering just 0.5.

Overnight the temperature dropped fractionally to a minimum of 3.3C at 03.40 Sunday but recovered slightly to 4.2C at 08.00.

Sunday began even gloomier than Saturday with the cloud so low that it masked the Marlborough Downs and Savernake Forest producing light drizzle just after 08.00. This was due to a cold front crossing the area from the Northwest. The barometric pressure has continued to fall slowly with a pressure reading a 08.00 of 1029.3mb, down 11mb since its peak on Tuesday.

Minimal sunshine and warmth on Friday as it was mainly cloudy being a degree down on Thursday and 1.5C below the 38-year average.

The thermometer dropped below freezing at 19.45 Friday evening and eventually fell to -0.8C at 00.57 early on Saturday.

Saturday arrived dull with full cloud, a little higher but little wind. Any evidence of an air frost had disappeared as the temperature had slowly risen to 0.9C before dawn. The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm registered 0.3C at 08.00.

Although the brisk breeze coming from the north usually means a cool day, this air stream originated in the Atlantic and had drifted clockwise around the anticyclone in mid-Atlantic before arriving in the UK, thus originating from a warmer, moist area.

There was a very brief, light shower at 15.45 that produced just 0.1mm of precipitation.

The thermometer rose to 6.6C being just 0.6C below the average and the warmest day since the 15th. There was no air frost overnight but there might have been a short-lived ground frost as the thermometer dropped to 1.1C at 02.16 early Friday before rising again to 2.7C at 08.00.

The brisk northerly breeze gusted to 20mph at one time and during that period there was an element of wind chill such that outside it felt 2C lower than that indicated on the thermometer.

Friday arrived with dull conditions due to low, thick cloud with the wind having veered into the northeast, but lighter than on Thursday.

The temperatures on Wednesday showed a modest recovery from the very cold weather of previous days. The slightly milder air mass from the Atlantic, that traveled clockwise around an anticyclone arrived on a westerly air movement then Northwest. The maximum of 4.4C was still 2.6C below the average but an overnight minimum of 0.5C, being 2.6C below the average, was the first above freezing night since the 16th. The maximum wind speed of 12mph was the strongest since the 18th.

The ground temperature at a depth of 5cm registered 0.2C at 08.00, the first day above freezing since the 17th.

Thursday began cloudy but just before 09.00 the sun began to roie above the cloud bank on the eastern horizon and shine strongly. The airmass from the Atlantic will continue but from the north today.