Category: Commentary

With no sunshine and no UV registered on Monday combined with a northeasterly ar moment it was not surprising to find thither thermometer struggled to reach 5.4C being 2.6C blw average. We have now had five successive days with progressively cooler maxima, being 12.4C, 10.6C, 9.2C, 8.4C, 5.5C and 5.4C on Monday.

It was another day without measurable rainfall although very light drizzle was observed in the morning.

A minimum of 3.2C was recorded overnight, the low, thick cloud stopped any frost from forming. The diurnal range was exceptionally small with a variation between day and night of just 2.2C

Tuesday dawned dull, dark and gloomy with the low, thick cloud still persisting. The barometric pressure has been slowly ebbing away for the last five days as the anticyclone left the UK with a reading of 1025.6mb at 08.00, down 15mb from its peak on Friday.

The cool northeasterly breeze brought another cool day on Sunday with the thermometer struggling to reach 6.1C, which was 1.9C below average and the first below average maximum since the 10th.

The fog lingered all day, easing just after midday, but thickening again late afternoon.

Overnight the breeze picked up and the temperature began to rise from its minimum of 2.2C, average for December. This resulted in the fog evaporating so that on Monday morning the visibility had improved under low, thick cloud. By 08.00 the temperature had lifted to 4.8C.

Thanks to the northeasterly ai stream, a very cool direction the thermometer struggled to reach 8.4C on Saturday, although this was just above (+0.4C) the average maximum for December.

The past four days have seen maxima slowly fall away with 12.4C, 10.6C, 9.2C and 8.4C on Saturday.

The minima over past days have also slipped downwards with a minimum of 3.8C at 08.00 on Sunday, but this was still 1.5C above the 37-year average.

Sunday after dawn revealed that fog had formed in the early hours limiting visibility to 200m at 08.00. The breeze, very light and often dropping out is still from the north east.

The temperatures have been falling for the past three days as the cooler air steam takes effect. The maximum of 9.2C was the lowest for a week but still 1.2c above the average. The brisk northeasterly breeze meant it felt cool outside with a touch of wind chill. It was the fourth consecutive day without sunshine under the grey, low cloud base.

The minimum overnight of 6.9C was also above average (+4.6C) thanks to the cloud cover.

Saturday dawned grey with very low cloud producing misty conditions that limited visibility to 1800m. The drier air of Friday with humidity of 82% at 08.00 has been replaced by humidity onD Saturday at 08.00 of 97%. The centre of the anticyclone has edged eastwards with the barometric pressure dropping to 1039.4mb at 08.00, a fall of just 2mb from its peak on Friday.

The wind for the past week has come steadily from the south west bringing mild if cloudy weather. The intense anticyclone has started to migrate, its centre having been over the UK on Thursday, to the North Sea that saw the first change in wind direction. Just after midday the very light breeze began to veer into the east and by 22.00 had veered further into the north east. Air from these directions is cooler and as a result the maximum on Thursday was 10.6C, down a couple of degrees on past days but still 2.6C above average. Likewise the overnight minimum of 8.4C being 6.1C above average that was registered at 08.00 on Friday.

The thermometer is showing a continual slight fall on Friday morning with the dawning of another cloudy and dull start to a day.

The barometric pressure has continued to build with a peak reading of 1041.4mb early on Friday, the highest pressure since 27th February.