Category: Commentary

During the brief spells of weak sunshine on Tuesday the thermometer rose to 14.4C, exactly the same as on Monday being a significant 3.3C above the long-term average. The wind from the southwest or south-southwest was strong on occasions with a maximum gust of 40mph at 12.33 making it the strongest gust since 21st February.

Another 6.9mm of precipitation was added to the total for November now standing at 45.3mm being 50% of the long-term average in the first week of the month.

It has been a cooler night than of late but the minimum of 9.1C was still a significant 5.4C above the average.

Wednesday started dull but just after 08.15 weak sunshine broke through the small breaks in the cloud. The wind has fallen very light overnight, around 5 – 7mph at 08.00. The air flow today has a more westerly component so the run of showers are arriving in a slightly different direction to previous days running just to the north of Marlborough.

The changeable weather continues with no sunshine logged on Monday but more rain amounting to 3.3mm. An active weather front crossed over night with the wind gusting to 39mph at 20.05, the rain continuing for several hours.

There was not a great variation in temperature between day and night with a high of 14.4C and a low pf 10.0C

After 08.30 on Tuesday there was a little brightness in evidence but the showery weather will continue under the influence of the low pressure close by.The pressure reading at 08.00 was 995.6mb, the lowest since 24th October.

Yet more rain fell on Sunday with an especially vicious squall at 12.10 that saw the wind briefly gust to 30mph. The rainfall over the last twenty-four hours amounted to 4.1mm taking the monthly total 35.1mm being 39% of the long-term average.

Once again, due to the southwesterly air stream temperatures by day and night were above average with a maximum of 12.8C (+2.7C) and 9.4C (+5.7c) the latter occurred at 21.15 Sunday evening.

Monday arrived with little change, more rain from low, thick cloud driven on by the southwesterly breeze. The thermometer rose during the night to reach 12.1C at 08.00

The unstable weather was with us all day on Saturday with rain or drizzle continuing all day and into the evening. As a result no direct or global sunshine was recorded. However, as the wind backed from the northwest into the southwest, a warmer air stream, the temperature slowly recovered throughout the day peaking at 11.6C just after midnight being 7.9C above the average.

The many hours of precipitation amounted to just 3.7mm taking the monthly total to 31.0mm when the average is 89.8m.

Sunday arrived with similar weather, the cloud heavy and low with rain just after dawn and more to come throughout the day. The thermometer at 08.00 read 11.6C.

The wind will continue to come from the southwest on Sunday due to a deep low pressure system just to the west of Ireland bringing in more moist but warm air from the Atlantic.

The northwesterly air stream was much cooler on Friday but the air was much clearer and allowed many hours of sunshine. A maximum of 12.2C was 2.2C above average.

The clear skies overnight saw the temperature drop during the evening with a minimum of 4.4C at 22.11.Thereafter, the advance cloud from the next weather front began to arrive that saw the temperature begin to rise again so that by Saturday at 08.00 the thermometer read 8.6C

There was very limited light rain at 07.30 on Saturday with the wind direction having changed again and coming from the southwest although conditions were calm at 08.00. The previous low-pressure that sat to the north is easing away and this weekend the high pressure system over Iberia will influence the air stream, which will become milder again.

This weekend sees ex-hurricane Martin travelling across the Atlantic, which will determine our weather in the near future.