Category: Commentary

Wednesday saw the wind veering into the west in the early hours, a slightly cooler direction than south on Tuesday. It was also much stronger with a peak gust f 24mph. As a result the peak temperature was down 2C on Tuesday with a maximum of 20.8C being 0.6C above the average.

It was a dry day with the UV a little lower than on Tuesday with a peak of 7.3, still rated as Very High.

The minimum of 10.2C was 3C down on Wednesday morning and almost exactly average for June.

Thursday brought variable sunshine first thing ahead of increasing cloud slowly easing in from the west with the wind having backed a few degrees into the southwest.

The prolonged sunshine on Tuesday saw the temperature soar to 23.1C being the warmest day this year, equally to 17th May, and 2.9C above the 38-year average.

The UV level of 8.2 was the highest since 8th July 2021 and firmly in the Very High category.

It was also a very warm night with the thermometer not falling below 13.1C making it the warmest night since 15th September (13.4C) and 3.0C above the average.

Although the day was dry, two brief showers occurred overnight triggering the automatic rain gauge at 01.00 and 03.15 but producing only 0.5mm of rainfall.

Wednesday produced sunny spells before 08.00 lifting the temperature to 16.0C.

The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm at 08.00 registered 17.0C making it the warmest the soil has been at that depth since 11th September (17.8C).

After a cloudy start to Monday the sun came out later in the morning and pushed the thermometer to 18.1C, still 2.1C below the average.

The wind was very light during the past twenty-four hours with a maximum gust of just 8mph and many times very still. Equal to the calmest day on 28th January. What movement there was came from the northeast for most of the day but veered into the south early evening. The UV level rose to 7.7, which was in the Very High category and the highest this year, but we are near midsummer.

The past night was cool with the thermometer dropping to 6.1C, which was 4C below the average under clear skies.

Radiation fog formed in the River Og valley in the very early hours of Tuesday but sunshine from dawn saw that evaporate very quickly and lifted the thermometer to 16.6C at 08.00

No sun and very cool by day on Sunday due to total cloud cover and the breeze brisk from the Northeast. The thermometer struggled to reach 14.0C being 6.2C below the average and the coolest day since 1st May (11.7C).

A wide rain band, 50 miles from north to south, approached from the south during the late afternoon with rain observed beginning to fall at 18.35. There was a slight pause just before 23.00 but more in the early morning. The daily rainfall total of 8.7mm was the heaviest daily total since 18th May and brought the monthly total to 11.5mm when the average is 54.2mm.

Due to the thick cloud cover the thermometer did not drop below 11.1C, which was 1C above the average.

Monday arrived with low cloud covering the Marlborough Downs and Savernake Forest giving very misty conditions, however, it began to lift slowly after 07.30.

The wind has veered from the northeast, where it came from for much of Sunday, through South to Northwest on Monday, and very light.

After a cool and damp start to Saturday the cloud began t thin mid-morning and brighten to give a cool day under the influence of the very brisk north east wind that was very gusty with a peak speed of 30mph at 12.12.

As a result of the overcast conditions and cool breeze the thermometer did not rise above the average with a peak of 19.3C (-0.8C).

The minimum overnight of 9.8C was also below average (-0.3C). Rain arrived before dawn but was light and only amounted to 1.0mm, much as my garden would like a good drink. One again the intense and heavy rainfall passed this area.

Sunday dawned dull and cool under the hang back of cloud from the rain zone that passed over the area early morning and the northeasterly breeze continuing. However, as the two low pressure systems affecting our weather relocate the wind is forecast to change abruptly to southwest late afternoon early evening.