Category: Commentary

The evidence of the departure of our almost resident anticyclone was noted as the barometric pressure began to fall steadily in the past twenty-four hours with the muted sunshine obscured in the afternoon as cloud drifted from the south.

The thermometer rose to 15.5C in the daytime, 5C above average, but did not drop below 9.1C overnight thanks to the thick cloud that arrived providing a duvet to keep residual warmth. This low was 6.8C above the average giving the warmest start to a day at 08.00 since 22nd February.

Tuesday early saw light drizzle that was not measurable, and thick, low cloud. The barometric pressure has dropped 23mb since its peak with a reading at 08.00 of 1012.9mb.

On Sunday, due to early morning fog that drifted in after 09.00 and didn’t completely clear until midday, produced the coolest day in the past week with the temperature also influenced by the wind continuing to come from the east if modest in strength.

The temperature overnight fell to exactly 0C at 06.01 on Monday morning that after first light revealed that thick fog had developed limiting visibility to 150m.

The anticyclone that has been with us for eleven days is forecast to drift quickly away from the southern North Sea to Russia by midday. The wind will continue to come from the east and be light. The barometric pressure has dropped another 7mb since yesterday and 20 mb since its peak.

The wall to wall sunshine from our resident anticyclone continued on Saturday that saw the thermometer rise to 17.7C being 7.2C above the 38-year average. The breeze strengthened during the morning and veered into the east. The UV level rose higher again to a value of 3.6, which is in the middle of ‘Moderate’ strength band.

The last night was not so cold with a minimum of 4.2C, so no air or ground frost.

Sunday saw the red sun slowly rose above the easier horizon promising another sunny and dry day, which wd be the eleventh consecutive dry day.

The equivalent loss of rainfall through evaporation from ground sources and plant life amounted to 2.72mm. The monthly evaporation now amounts to 35mm when the rainfall is just 42.8mm.

The ground temperature at a depth of 5mm has been hovering around 5C at the daily readings at 08.00. With much colder weather imminent next week, too soon to put much in the garden in the way of flowers and vegetables. The forecast is a drop of up to 10C in the maximum temperature, with wind chills and possible ground frost after Wednesday.

Although Friday brought more hours of shine the wind had backed into the north east and strengthened producing a maximum of 16.9C. This was degree or so below recent days but still 6.4C above the average.

For the first time since 7th October the UV level rose to Moderate with a value of 3.5.

A brief air frost occurred in the early hours of Saturday with a minimum of -0.1C for an hour but by 08.00 the strong sunshine had lifted the temperature to 7.8C.

With the anticyclone still over or near the UK the fine, dry and sunny weather continues. The thermometer rose to 18.1C, just bleep the Wednesday peak but still 7.6C above the 38-year average.

As on previous nights the clear skies meant the thermometer dropped just below freezing, at 05.15 on Friday, for less than two hours around dawn with a minimum of -0.3C at 06.22 Friday.

By 08.00 on Friday the sun, having been shining brightly since sunrise, lifted the temperature to 4.8C. The centre of the high pressure is forecast to ease eastwards from over the UK to the North Sea. This will still maintain the dry and sunny weather and light winds.

The loss of equivalent rainfall through evaporation from the ground and plant life has been in excess of 2mm daily for the past three days. The monthly rainfall total stands at 42.8mm but evaporation has seen the loss of 30mm of equivalent rainfall.