Category: Commentary

Although we had 11.3 hours of sunshine on Saturday the fresh breeze from the north east and variable thin high cloud meant a slightly less hot day than on Friday with a maximum of 28.4C. This peak was 7.4C above the 36-year average. We haven’t experienced a north easterly wind for almost a month, which was due to a centre of high pressure off the Scottish east coast circulating clockwise and a small depression over northwest France spinning anticlockwise, as they do. The result was a brisk breeze all day with a maximum gust of 15mph that continued throughout the past night.

It was another dry day with the UV only reaching the ‘High’ level.

The north easterly breeze dragged cloud in from the North Sea overnight that produced complete cover on Sunday morning so a sunless start to the day unlike previous mornings. The minimum overnight was 15.3C being 3.8C above average.

Update on Sunday at 18.15: after a cloudy start to the day the sun began to break through after 11.30 and the thermometer steadily rose to a maximum of 29.0C at 18.01.

Friday saw the thermometer rise to 31.7C at 13.34 making it the hottest August day since the August record set for this station on 1st August 1995 when 31.8C was recorded. Just after 13.15 cloud began to drift in from the west when the temperature began to slowly fall away. This peak was 10.7C above the 36-year average and the hottest day since 31st July when 32.9C was recorded. The heat has been brought from North Africa on a plume 700 miles wide.

Fortunately the clearer skies overnight meant that the thermometer drifted downwards to reach a minimum of 15.7C at 05.53 allowing some of the heat to dissipate before the sun got to work again on Saturday. There was a little radiation mist in the River Og valley after dawn that quickly evaporated.

A large bank of cloud initially obscured the sun after dawn but at 06.25 the sun rose above the back edge of the cloud bank and by 08.00, when records were taken, the thermometer read 19.8C indicating another hot day ahead. The soil is now holding on to much of the daytime heat with the ground thermometer at a depth of 5cm reading 21.1C at 08.00.

Update on Saturday at 16.42: brisk north easterly breeze and variable high cloud limited peak temperature to 29.0C at 16.40, down 2.8C on Friday’s maximum.

The southerly air brought the forecast hotter weather as the thermometer soared to 25.7C, which was 4.7C above the 36-year average. The morning was dogged by light drizzle that was not measurable.

Under clear skies the temperature dropped away to 11.0C overnight, just 0.5C below average, with fog forming in the early hours limiting visibility to 600m but by 07.30 on Friday it had completely evaporated under the influence of strong sunshine.

Update on Friday at 18.15: thermometer soared to 31.7C at 13.35 before cloud built up with spots of rain just before and after 18.00.

Under the influence of the very warm, moist air mass the thermometer rose to 23.0C at 13.23 before cloud built up. This was 2C above average in the reduced hours of sushine, just 4.4 hours.

Between 17.15 and 17.50 brief rain showers were observed.

It was a very mild night with a minimum of 17.1C, the warmest night since 24th July 2019 and only 4C below the average maximum for August. In the early hours of Thursday the humid, moist air built up so that by dawn the very low, thick could draped the Marlborough Downs and obscured Savernake Forest from view producing continuous light drizzle. However, by 07.30 the cloud base had begun to lift. The precipitation over the past twenty-four hours amounted to 1.2mm.

Tuesday saw the wind coming from the southwest, a warmer air mass than the northwesterly on Monday so it was not surprising to find the thermometer edging upwards again during daylight hours with a maximum of 21.5C being 0.6C above average. Sunshine hours amounted to 9.1 hors with the uV again edging Ito the Very High category around midday. It was another dry day.

The wind late evening backed into the south bringing much warmer air from the Continent producing a very mild night with the thermometer not sinking below 15.8C at 00.30 Wednesday morning. This was 4.3C above the 36-year average and almost 10C warmer than the previous night.

Wednesday dawned with thick, low cloud totally obscuring the sun with the wind from the south south west quite brisk but feeling quite warm and humid with the humidity level at 93% at 08.00.