Category: Commentary

With spells of strong sunshine on Friday it was a dry and quite pleasant day with the thermometer slowly edging just above average with a maximum of 7.3C (+0.4) although it was breezy with winds gusting to 24 mph.

Late afternoon, with partially clear skies, the temperature dropped steadily until reaching a minimum of -1.6C at 05.15 this morning, which was 4C lower than Thursday. After a windless few hours around midnight, the wind picked up just after 1am with the wind veering into the north-east. A little later in the early morning, the northeasterly brought cloud, which stopped the fall in temperature, and more moist air. As a result the thermometer edged back above freezing to reach 1.4C at 08.00 but the moist, mild air riding over the colder, denser air and cold ground produced fog with visibility down to 700 meters at 08.00.

This is the first day with wind coming from the north-east for a month. As a result the colder, moist air from this direction, with consequent wind, chill makes this morning decidedly chilly.

Update at 10.30: Temperate 2C but wind chill makes it feel like -1C.
Update at 18.00: Temperature 4.4C but wind chill makes it feel like 0C with 24mph gusts

Thursday saw the remaining effect of storm Eleanor with winds in the morning gusting to 48mph at 13.30 but easing down as the afternoon and evening progressed.

It was a dry day, the first this month with just 14 minutes of sunshine early afternoon.

The thermometer rose to a maximum of 11.3C being 4.4C above the 33-year January average falling away to a minimum of 4.6C at 04.32 this morning.

Today is dawning with broken cloud, light winds and the temperature having risen to 5.6C at 08.00.

Update at 11.00: Temperature 6.4C but wind chill makes it feel more like 4C with wind rising and gusting to 26mph.

Fortunately, the wind slowly moderated during the daytime on Wednesday with a maximum gust of 33mph just after 10.30.

It was a mild day with the thermometer climbing to a maximum of 9.3C just after 13.15 before falling back to a minimum of 5.8C at 01.15 early this morning. However, with another weather front traversing the area in the last few hours the rain began just after 02.30 this morning and by 08.00 amounted to 5.6mm.

The arrival of the weather front saw the thermometer climb again after 02.00 to a maximum of 10.0C at 08.00, a very mild start to the day and 9C above the January average minimum.

After the clearance of most of the cloud just after midday yesterday we did experience 1.42 hours of sunshine.

Update: Gust of 48mph at 13.30 today

Tuesday was quiet until later in the afternoon when the advance effect of storm Eleanor began to be felt. The temperature slowly rose to a maximum of 9.9C (7.4C above average) at 14.29 before falling away. However, as storm Eleanor approached the thermometer started to rise again, peaking at 12.2C at 22.22 last night.

There was drizzle and rain all morning letting up in the afternoon as the skies cleared from the previous weather front. The rain associated with ‘Eleanor’ started in earnest just after 10pm and another intense rainfall period occurred between 01.15 and 01.45. The total rainfall for the last twenty-four hours was 14.7mm.

The other notable feature of the past twenty-four hours was the wind strength that began to build during the evening culminating with a maximum gust of 52mph at 02.21 this morning. This was not a record for January as a gust of 57mph was recorded on 18th January 2006.

At dawn ‘Eleanor’ has departed to the east just leaving a legacy of strong winds, still gusting to 30mph, and a clear sky with the promise of sunshine when the sun rises above the horizon.

The first day of the new year brought us a similar mix of weather that we have seen over recent days. The cloud cleared early afternoon allowing us to enjoy 1.57 hours of strong sunshine after a showers before noon amounting to 1.0mm.

The thermometer rose to an average temperature of 7.2C on Monday but dipped overnight to a minimum of 2.2C at 04.27 this morning before recovering to 3.6C at time observations are taken at 08.00.

The day has dawned dull with thick cloud heralding the arrival of more rain later this morning.