Category: Commentary

Friday saw rain at 08.20 falling at the rate of 22mm/hour. With brief showers early Saturday morning the rainfall for the past twenty-four hours was 6.0mm, bringing the total for December to 45.5mm when the average is 90.0mm.

The increased sunshine over previous days was welcome with 3.35 hours. However, the temperature began to steadily fall away after 08.30 on Friday with a minimum of 5.6C later that day at 18.28 before rising a little overnight.

Early this morning the wind began to rise again with a peak gust of 31mph at 03.36.

At dawn there was broken cloud with the possibility of limited sunshine before the shower clouds develop again.

Thursday brought us 8.0mm of rainfall, very heavy before and just after dawn on Friday. This brings the December total to 39.5mm when the average for the whole month is 90.0mm.

The flow of vey mild, moist Atlantic air continued with little variation in temperature. The maximum was 12.2C and only dipped to 11.5C overnight.

Friday arrived with a very wide weather front crossing the area and very heavy rain.

Update on Friday at 16.35: more sunshine at last with over 3 hours although the temperature has been falling all day from peak of 11.7C at 08.00 to currently 6.2C.

Wednesday was dominated by thick, low cloud all day with rain starting just after noon producing 6.7mm of precipitation bringing the December total to 31.5mm. Due to the mild Atlantic air the thermometer returned a maximum figure above average (+4C) of 11.8C.

No sunshine occurred and the UV level was 0, not surprisingly, the first day that this has occurred in December.

Thursday started dry with the cloud base a little higher after a very mild night when the thermometer did not drop below 9.5C (at 00.20), which was 7.6C above average.

Tuesday saw the thermometer struggle to a maximum of 6.1C at 13.27 during the 4 hours of sunshine in the morning. This was 1.7C below average and the first below average day for a week. However, advancing cloud before noon gradually blotted out the sunshine with rain starting late afternoon.

Another 5.2mm of precipitation was recorded yesterday, which brings the December total to 24.8mm. We have now had eight successive days with significant rainfall after six months with below average rainfall.

Light rain continued throughout the night and at dawn the cloud base was low with more light rain and drizzle.

After a low of 4.1C at 23.05 the thermometer eased upwards with a significant rise just before dawn so that at 08.00 the thermometer read 8.7C.

Update on Wednesday at 15.00: persistent rain arrives just after noon from a wide and slow moving weather front extending from northern France to Scotland. Southerly mild, moist air mass raises temperature to a maximum of 11.8C, being 4C above average.

After a few minutes of brightness on Monday morning the very heavy showers built up and continued for most of the day producing 9.9mm of rainfall.

As we were still under the influence of the mild Atlantic air the temperature rose a little, again above average, to a maximum of 11.1C.

Late morning the wind began to veer from the southwest into the northwest bringing a slow drop in temperature.

Overnight a clearing sky meant that a slight air frost occurred with the thermometer dropping to -0.2C.

Tuesday arrived with a mostly clear sky and sunshine as soon it it got up with the promise of much more than the 9 minutes that were recorded on Monday. Thanks are due to the temporary ridge of high pressure that has been building for the last twenty-four hours with a 24Mb rise.

Update on Tuesday at 17.40: first below average maximum temperature day for a week with 6.1C (-1.7C) at 13.27, currently 5.1C. Early sunshine gave way to increasing cloud before noon with first rain from next weather front falling just before 17.30.