Category: Commentary

Although Saturday was bright no sunshine was recorded although the UV level at 0.7 was the highest since the beginning of December.

It was a windy day with strong gusts throughout the east twenty-fur hours with the strongest gust of 46mph recorded at 14.08 Saturday afternoon and another almost as strong measuring 39mph at 17.47 Saturday evening.

The air mass brought to us on a southerly wind from the Azores meant anther warm day with a maximum of 10.3C, which was 3.3C above the average. This was maintained at about that level during the evening and night but as the clouds moved away on Sunday morning the thermometer began to fall a little under the clearing skies to read 8.9C at 08.00.

There was a little rain around midnight but an intense, short shower just before 06.00 on Sunday morning saw rain falling briefly at the rate of 60mm/hour. The rainfall for the east twenty-four hours amounted to 4.0mm bringing the monthly total to 29.9mm when the 35-year January average is 90.4mm.

Sunday at dawn saw the heavy black clouds rolling away to the east being replaced by broken cloud.

The mild weather continues as an air mass originating near the Azores brings warm air with a maximum of 8.1C, which was 1.1C above the 35-year average. We enjoyed 2.8 hours of sunshine, principally in the morning.

There was a light shower overnight amounting to 0.3mm.

The temperature fell away during Friday evening, under clear skies, to a minimum of 3.9C at 18.19 but intruding cloud cover later in the evening and night meant that the temperature recovered to 8.0C at 08.00 Saturday morning.

Update at 14.30 Saturday: wind strength has been increasing for the last four hours with a gust of 46mph at 14.08.

The flow of air from the south west and mid-Atlantic meant another mild day with the thermometer rising to 10.8C at 13.10. From that time the temperature slowly way fell away until reaching a low of 4.5C just before dawn on Friday.

Thursday was a breezy day with a maximum gust of 38mph just after 19.00 that evening.

A substantial 9.8mm of rain fell during the evening bringing the January total to 25.6mm.

Friday arrived with broken cloud and the wind now coming from the north west having veered just after 20.00 Thursday evening.

Wednesday was another mild day and especially overnight with again a minimum of 7.9C

Rain arrived late evening amount to 5.1mm bringing the January total to 15.8mm.

Thursday morning saw the cloud associated with the rain band easing away to the east and the sky clearing with the promise of sunny intervals before the next weather front arrives after noon.

Tuesday saw the thermometer rise slowly to 11.8C late afternoon, being 4.8C above average, which was held until just after midnight when the thermometer fell away to a minimum of 9.6C, this being a significant 8.5C above the 35-year average.

These mild conditions were due to an intense, large depression centered near Iceland that brought warm, moist air from the Azores as the air mass circulated anticlockwise.

Late afternoon and early evening the cloud base dropped significantly bringing mist and light drizzle amounting to 0.3mm.

Wednesday saw much thinner cloud, but total cover, after dawn had broken. The wind had fallen light overnight after gusting to 24mph on Tuesday.