Category: Commentary

There was no change on Thursday from the recent gloomy conditions under continuous thick, low cloud brought in on the cool easterly breeze. The thermometer struggled to reach a maximum of 3.7C at 13.46, being 4.6C below the long term average, with the strongest gust of 14 mph logged at 00.25 early Friday. The minimum of 1.2C, which was 0.7C below average, was recorded at 19.36 in the early evening of Thursday.

Friday revealed the first early signs of a change in the persistent cloudy and cool conditions. The wind overnight had slowly veered from the east to east-southeast and then southeast, a less cool direction. The cloud is higher but there is still total cover although the visibility has improved without misty conditions.

The humidity level at 08.00 was 76.5%, the lowest since the beginning of December so the air is slowly becoming less moist that would indicate thinner and higher cloud cover today, not sure that would extend to any breaks in the cloud therefore we are not likely to see any sunshine, unless very brief and weak. The solar radiation sensor was woken just before 07.40, not seen so early for over a week.

The radar charts show the very large depression in mid-Atlantic has been making slow prepress towards the UK with rain in the west country late on Thursday. Today, light rain had reached Somerset by 08.00 with heavy rain crossing Cornwall and Devon. The barometric pressure is still, high-up up 1mb since yesterday, as the anticyclone resists the advancing depression so there so no indication of rain here today although the cloud will slowly thicken as the day progresses. The pressure reading at 08.00 was still high at 1023.5mb.

N.B. My new professional weather station showed a gust of wind on Thursday reaching 142mph at 08.15. That was obviously a glitch in the electronics that I cannot delete as in the older station. The technicians are working at producing a solution, mine is not the only complaint. In the good old days I could manually access each item of data using a button to correct my data but not now – is that progress?

The weather on Wednesday proved to be a monotonous repeat of that on Tuesday and Monday under the continuing low, thick cloud that without any solar activity limited the rise in temperature to a maximum of 4.3C at 12.43 being 3.9C below the long-term average. The plus side was very limited air movement that meant no wind chill, as the light breeze hovered in low single figures all day with two identical exciting moments when the anemometer reached the dizzy heights of 11mph at 10.41 on Wednesday and exactly the same at 05.21 early Thursday.

The minimum temperature was logged at 07.42 early Thursday when the thermometer read 2.4C being 0.5C above the average. Once again there was a very low diurnal range of just 1.9C between the maximum and minimum temperatures.

Thursday began where previous days this week left off with total cloud cover being thick and quite low again producing misty conditions. The anemometer is barely turning under very calm conditions.

Today we are still under the pool of cool air beneath the anticyclone, however, the breeze will come from an easterly direction, a slight and significant change from the last seven days. A ridge of high pressure is dominating our weather from the extensive area under the anticyclone but sadly it is still feeding in cloud from the recent depression, now over Denmark, with an element of moisture picked up after it has crossed the cold North Sea.

There is a significant sign of change in the future as a weather front, associated with a low pressure system in the eastern Atlantic, will encroach into the West Country later today. The change here will be slow with hopefully the cloud thinning over the next few days, and after the weekend, it being slightly less cold.

Tuesday continued the recent trend of dull and dreary days under thick, low cloud brought across the UK on a northeasterly air stream. It was another cold day with the thermometer struggling to reach a maximum of 4.1C, logged at 14.59, being a significant 4.2C below the long-term average. The temperature fell slowly to hover around 2.8C all night with the lowest temperature of 2.4C set in the last twenty-four hours logged at 08.00 on Tuesday morning.

Once again, due to the thick cloud acting as a blanket to minimise loss of warmth into the atmosphere at night and with no sunshine to raise the temperature, the diurnal range, difference between maximum and minimum, was just 1.7C. One significant feature was the lack of any strong wind gusts, just a light breeze that gave an average speed of between 1 and 2mph all day and night with just one incident of 14mph at 02.15.

Not surprisingly, under the persistent dull conditions, there was no UV light logged all day, the second time this month.

Wednesday started as previous days under thick low cloud with the anemometer only slowly turning and in low, single figures. The humidity logged at 08.00 was 89.3%, the lowest for a week, so I hope this might mean the cloud thins a little during the daytime.

The recent depression is only slowly edging away eastwards, now off the dutch coast, and combined with the northeasterly airflow continuing the cloud cover from the moist and cool airstream. The battle between the anticyclone and depression is stalemate as the barometric pressure dropped just 0.3mb in the last twenty-four hours. The forecast is for the depression to continue easing away, but only very slowly eastwards, that will maintain the thick cloud for today and likely on Thursday.

Snow Moon
February’s full moon is called the Snow Moon and this year it will reach its peak at 1.53pm today. The best time to spot the full moon was last night or tonight, but probably not likely under the cloud cover! The so-called Snow Moon is named after the abundant snowfall the Northern Hemisphere often gets during February. In the UK, February is the snowiest month with an average of 5.6 snow days compared with 5.3 days in January and 4.2 days in March.

The depression that made Monday so depressing, as it pushed its cloud and drizzle over the UK, was reluctant to move away. The thick, low cloud produced intermittent light drizzle, no great quantity, with the daily total amounting to 0.8mm. It did severely limit any rise in temperature with a maximum of only 3.1C at 15.11, which was a significant 5.2C below the long-term average making it the coldest day since 10th January. There was little variation overnight with the thermometer hovering around 2.3C and 2.4C all night, the minimum of 2.3C was 0.4C above average.

The diurnal range, the difference in temperature between day and night, was exceptionally small, just 0.8C.

Tuesday began where Monday left off with thick, low cloud although the wind is much lighter, currently in low single figures.

The depression is still very close by, just off the coast of The Netherlands and still spinning cloud around it and still reaching over the UK, the thickest cloud now over the east coast of the UK. The forecast is for it to move ever so slowly into the North Sea but still influence our weather all day and into Wednesday. The direction of the air stream will be predominantly from the north this morning, backing into the northeast and east northeast later today.

The nearby high pressure has released its grip a little, a loss of 6mb since Monday but it is still trapping the moist, cold air underneath it. However,it is forming a ‘blocking high’ that is resisting the advance of Atlantic systems, with their associated weather fronts, moving towards the UK.

The depression over northern France spilled copious amounts of cloud over the UK on Sunday, although there were bright intervals in the morning also some weak sunshine. The thermometer peaked at 18.52 with a maximum of just 5.8C being 2.4C below the long-term average. The temperature varied little overnight thanks to the cloud cover with a minimum of 2.2C at 05.10 being 0.3C above the average.

Rain from the low-pressure system began to fall intermittently after 17.15 with a much more consistent fall just before and after midnight and another rain band from 04.55 that amounted to 16.2mm of precipitation. These disturbances brought increased wind rising into double figures after a relatively calm day with a peak gust of 23mph at 20.03.

Monday dawned ever so slowly with rain and very low, thick cloud. The high pressure is still mainly to the east of our area that, combined with the depression, is likely to bring continuous cloud all day with intermittent drizzle and light rain driven on by a cold northeasterly breeze, stronger than on Sunday. At least the fog has cleared but left us with misty conditions. The pick up in wind speed will produce a wind chill again today but not as severe as on Friday, The temperature at 08.00 was 2.7C with a wind chill making it feel more like 2.1C outside on the skin.

The anticyclone is forecast to be resident for much of the week, stretching as far east as Russia, which will mean a feed from a northeasterly air steam that will continue bringing with it cloud and moisture trapped under the high pressure dome, as it crosses the cold North Sea.