Category: Commentary

Monday continued where Sunday left off with rain and sleet until mid-morning producing 1.3mm of precipitation.

The thermometer struggled to reach 1.2C at 13.31 making it the coldest day since 26th January and a significant 6.6C below the 33-year average.

The thermometer fell away late afternoon and dropped to freezing at 16.59, falling away to -1.3C by 19.20 and then hovered around that temperature until just after midnight when it dropped steadily to a minimum of -5.1C at 06.25 this morning. There was then a slight recovery to -4.3C at 08.00. This makes it the coldest night since 21st January.

As the deep depression over the near content drifted away the barometric pressure began to rise steadily then rapidly producing a rise of 28mb in the 24-hour period.

The UV level was non-existent for the second day and the soil temperature at a depth of 5cm was 0.2C at 08.00 this morning.

With a totally clear sky this morning there is promise of sunshine when the sun makes it late appearance above the horizon at this time of year.

The snowfall decreased during the morning, turning to sleet. More sleet, but predominantly rain fell in the early hours of Monday morning producing 9.2mm of precipitation, which brings the total for December to 31.4mm. The snow was wet in nature, sticking to any surface on which it fell. To obtain the rainfall figure I carefully scooped out the snow from the rain gauge and slowly melted it to add to the rain that had fallen earlier.

Although the maximum recorded was 3.2C, this resulted from a short pulse of slightly warmer air around 10.20 on Sunday that lasted for just over half an hour when by 11.00 the thermometer dropped back to 0.8C and stayed there for most of the day.

The overnight thick cloud was intensified, as was the precipitation, from the effects of another deep low pressure system, this time centred over the continent.

The temperature at 08.00 was 1.1C with strong northeasterly winds gusting to 32mph at 06.53 and moderate rain and some sleet.

A notable feature, meteorologically, was the extreme fall in barometric pressure as the intense low-pressure system crossed this area dropping 33mb in 24 hours, from 1019mb on Saturday to 981mb on Sunday morning. Technically called Cyclogenisis when the barometric pressure fall is in excess of 24mb in 24 hours.

With a maximum of just 2.9C at 13.33 on Saturday it was the coldest day since 11th February being 4.3C below the 33-year December average.

There was no precipitation until just after 02.15 this morning, when initially rain began to fall that readily turned to wet snow after 04.30 as the moist air ran up against the cold air from previous days. The total precipitation from rain and snow was 14.6mm, making it the wettest day since 2nd August and bringing the total for December to 22.0mm.

Having hovered around 1C for most of the day there was a rise in temperature from midnight until just after 2am when it reached 2C then fell to a minimum of 0.6C.

The barometric pressure at 08.00 this morning was 975.3mb, the lowest reading since 20th November 2016, as the centre of the low pressure passed over this region.

There was plenty of sunshine on Friday, 4.45 hours, but this did not influence the temperature as the thermometer struggled to reach 3.8C just after 2pm, which was 4C below the December average. Although there were passing clouds no precipitation fell in the form of snow or rain.

The skies cleared completely overnight allowing the thermometer to fall to a minimum of -2.3C, which is 4.2C below average, at 06.22 this morning, which has dawned with a totally clear sky and the promise of more sunshine.

The wind has dropped put overnight after the breezy day yesterday with gusts up to 22mph.

Although Thursday started very mild the arctic air mass arrived mid-morning with the thermometer starting to tumble.

The maximum of 12.4C, almost 5C above the December average, was reached at 10.50 before it began to fall with a minimum of 1.1C just before dawn.

The backend of the cold weather front produced another 2.8mm of rainfall in the morning before the clearance arrived midday. The clearance of cloud in the afternoon allowed 1.38 hours of sunshine.

It was a breezy day with gusts to 25mph as the wind veered from the south to the west north west.