Category: Commentary

The air movement on Monday began from the south, as on eight previous days but around 08.00 began to veer into the north where it stayed until just after 16.00 when it backed into the southwest and then southeast. This was due to a minor depression over France changing its position. As a result, even though we had 2.3 hours of sunshine, the maximum was down a degree on previous days with a peak of 11.0C at 15.37, however this was still 3.3C above the 37-year average.

Late afternoon, under clearing skies, the temperature began to fall reaching a minimum of 3.3C at 21.58. Thereafter, cloud cover must have increased as there was a steady rise in temperature to reach 6.9C at 08.00 on Tuesday.

There were brief intervals of welcome sunshine between broken cloud after dawn on Tuesday with the wind now coming steadily from the south again.

The predicted path of the Jet Stream shows a distinct loop to the north of the UK, as opposed to recent weeks when it was to the south, from around Friday for several days that should bring drier and sunnier weather if colder by night.

There was very little sunshine on Sunday, just 0.4 hours, as a result the thermometer was down a little still 4.5C above average and is the seventh consecutive above average maximum. The southerly air stream continued but less brisk with a peak gust of 14mph rather than in the 20s as occurred during the past week.

A little more rain fell in the last twenty-four hours amounting to 1.2mm bringing the monthly total to 53.7mm being 14mm below the 37-year average.

The thermometer fell away to a minimum of 6.7C at 05.16 on Monday being 5.2C above the average. This was the eighth consecutive night when the minimum was above the 37-year average.

Monday morning brought another gloomy start to the day as the mild, moist southerly air stream continued however very little wind movement was observed.

There have been eight consecutive days with the air stream coming from the south. This is unusual as we are subject to frequent weather systems coming in from the Atlantic interspersed with anticyclones, of which we have seen few recently.

The southerly stream of mild, moist air continued on Saturday that raised the thermometer to 12.9C at 15.02. This was the warmest day since 21st December and a significant 5.2C above the 37-year average. There was a little brightness late morning that saw the UV level rise to 1.6, still in the low category but the highest level since 23rd October.

There was a little light rain in the morning and again overnight but amounting to just 0.5mm.

Due to the persistence of low cloud providing a duvet, little warmth escaped into the atmosphere overnight that saw a minimum of 9.4C at 06.15. This was the warmest night since 18th November and almost 8C above the long-term average and 1.7C above the average maximum for February.

Sunday started like so many recently with low, thick cloud and the southerly airstream light. A depression to the north west of the UK, rotating anticlockwise as they do, continues to feed the mild air from Iberia.

Friday was another in the sequence of cloudy, mild, damp days. The thermometer lifted to around 9C for most of the day but during the evening rose to a maximum of 10.9C at 19.32. The southerly wind was often gusty with a maximum of 32mph.

The rainfall during the past twenty-four was minimal, just 1.7mm added to the monthly total that now stands at 52.0mm being 15mm below the 37-year average.

Saturday after dawn was overcast with moisture in the air and light rain again just after 08.30. The temperature reading at 08.00 was 10.3C making it the warmest start to a day since 18th November (11.5C). The soil temperature at a depth of 5cm was 8.1C at 08.00, the warmest since 28th January, which will encourage the snowdrops and daffodils now beginning to show their beauty.

Although we had 2.5 hours of sunshine on Thursday, the highest for a week, both the maximum of 9.7C (+2.0C) and the minimum of 3.5C (2.0C) were down on the previous days but still above average. The brisk southerly breeze reached a maximum gust of 26mph.

The next weather front made its appearance overnight.The minimum temperature registered just after midnight, but increasing cloud stopped the fall and a rise of 3C occurred by 08.00 on Friday with a temperature of 6.8C.

The first rain drops from this new weather front were observed at 07.15. The past twenty-four hours produced rainfall of 4.2mm bringing the monthly total to 50.3mm being 17mm below the 37-year average. The southerly air flow continues.