Category: Commentary

The temperature recovered slightly on Friday with a peak of 10.0C being just 0.1C below average due to the change in wind direction, then from the southwest. However, with thick cloud cover and a mild Atlantic airstream from the southwest the diurnal temperature (variation between day and night) was just 1.6C as the thermometer only dropped to a minimum of 8.4C overnight, which was 4.6C above the 37-year average.

Saturday arrived with thick cloud in place and no morning sunshine. The barometric pressure is currently at highest since 13th October with a reading at 08.00 of 1027.9mb. Usually a ridge of high pressure brings fine weather, however, we have the minimal wind conditions but much cloud is trapped below the anticyclone.

The temperatures by day have been falling since the 1st with a maximum of just 8.4C on Thursday, which was 1.7C below the 37-year average being the coldest day since 7th April, but it is Autumn. It was another dry day, the third consecutive after the very wet October, with 3.5 hours of sunshine.

The thermometer slowly fell during the evening and night to a minimum of -1.0C at 07.15 on Friday morning, however, the temperature did not fall sufficiently to produce an air frost (-0.1C) until 05.00 with a ground frost setting earlier.

Friday arrived with variable high cloud and sunshine. The barometric pressure has been rising for the past three days with a reading at 08.00 of 1027.3mb, the highest pressure since 13th October, thus the dry days with variable sunshine.

The north-northwest breeze picked up on Wednesday, gusting to 15mph, and from that cooler direction meant that the thermometer did not get above 9.2C being 0.9C below average. It was another dry day.

The breeze overnight and cloud cover meant no repeat of a frost, air or ground, as the thermometer did not sink below 3.4C, reached at 05.50 on Thursday. This minimum was 0.4C below average.

Thursday saw a little brightness first thing as the cloud was variable. The cool northerly breeze meant that wind chill occurred with the thermometer reading 4.3C at 08.00 that felt more like 3C.

Tuesday brought us 6.3 hours of splendid sunshine that, under a very light westerly breeze, lifted the temperature to 12.3C being 2.2C above the average. No rain fell in the past 24 hours. The maximum air movement was just 9mph with frequent still conditions that existed for most of the night.

Under clear skies initially overnight the thermometer dropped steadily to reach an air frost (-0.1) at 22.31 and the minimum of -2.3C at 07.01 on Wednesday morning. This was the first air frost since 2nd May (-1.0C).

At dawn variable fog and mist was evident that slowly thinned under increasing cloud cover. The barometric pressure has been slowly rising for the past 48 hours, from the low on Monday (991.5mb) with a reading of 1004.9mb at 08.00.

The wind was still predominantly from the southwest during Monday, veering a few degrees into the west-southwest late afternoon. This relatively mild air stream gave us an above average (+0.8C) maximum for early November of 10.9C.

With clearer skies overnight the thermometer, situated well away from hard ground surfaces, dropped steadily to reach a minimum of 0.2C at 08.04 being 3.6C below average and the first ground frost of the season. A thermometer close to hardstanding gave a temperature of -0.8C as the surface held the cold longer and deeper as against grass and soil surfaces that at the present time hold the warmth a little longer.

Tuesday saw the sun shine strongly as it rose above the horizon. As the depression eases away today the wind will veer further into the west and northwest as the day progresses. The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm has dropped from 10.8C at the end of October to 3.9C today at 0800.