The southerly winds on Wednesday brought very mild air with the thermometer rising to its maximum this morning, rather than during daylight hours yesterday, with a reading of 11.8C. This was 4C above the average and the mildest night and morning for almost two weeks.
The rainfall by 08.00 was 4.2mm with more to come this morning from a cold weather front crossing the area.
There were very windy conditions yesterday with a peak gust of 27mph.
Tuesday was another overcast day with not much weather happening. The thermometer rose very little, a maximum of 7.7C, average for December, but the cloud cover that was maintained overnight provided a blanket to stop warmth radiating into the atmosphere so the minimum of 6.1C was 4C above the December mean.
Wednesday has dawned with the depressing thick cloud still in evidence. However it is mild with very little wind.
The wind backing into the west on Monday meant a less cold day with a maximum of 8.9C (1.1C above average) and a minimum of 5.5C (+3.5C).
Today has again dawned with thick cloud and no promise of any sunshine even though we are under high barometric pressure, the highest since 19th April, with a reading of 1036.3mb.
November and Autumn Summary – a month of fluctuating weather
November
The month began with mild temperatures by day, 14.4C on the 1st, but the nights were cold with three nights when the thermometer dropped below zero producing a minimum of -2.1C on the morning of the 6th.
The month continued in this pattern as frequent weather fronts crossed the country followed by brighter, cooler periods. The coldest night occurred on the night of the 25th when the thermometer dropped to -2.8C, being 6C below the November average minimum.
Although the daytime temperatures held up well, being 0.3C above the 33-year average, the average night temperatures were 1.5C below. This gave a mean of 6.01C (-0.6C) compared to the very cold November of 1985, which produced a mean of 3.7C and 1994 with 10.1C.
There were 11 nights when an air frost occurred with the November average being 7.
The other notable feature was the lack of rainfall with just 60.3mm, the second successive month with a below average total. This was 32mm below the 33-year average compared to 53mm in October, a significant reduction of 85mm over two months compared to the average, so it is no wonder our rivers continue to run very low.
The strong sunshine total of 86.6 hours was the highest figure over the past four years since this instrument was installed. It is interesting to note that November produced 4 more hours of sunshine than October. The gloomy November of 2015 only gave us 16.4 hours.
Autumn
The three complete months of September to November constitute autumn for meteorological records. This autumn the mean was 0.1C above the 33-year average being exactly the same as the autumn of 2016.
The rainfall total for this three-month period was 167mm, being 69% of the 33-year average or 73mm below. The contrasting years were in 1985 with 116mm and 2006 with 401mm.
We enjoyed 284 hours of strong sunshine over the three months.
Sunday was the second day with thick cloud cover totally obliterating the sun all day and allowing no UV light to penetrate, even worse than Saturday.
It was a dry day with the temperature easing upwards again, the first above average for ten days, with a maximum of 9.5C ((+1.8C).
There were breaks in the cloud overnight allowing the thermometer to drop to a minimum of 1.4C at 02.20 this morning, just below average. By the time readings were taken at 08.00, this had risen to 5.5C.
The notable feature this morning is the barometric pressure that at 08.00 had risen to 1032.6mb, the highest barometric reading since 27th October.
After the cold, dry and sunny days last week the change in wind direction to WNW brought thick cloud all day and no chance of any sunshine. However, this did return the temperature to near normal with a maximum of 6.1C, being 1.7C below average as the ground is still cold from the frosty nights and cold days.
There was occasional light drizzle in the afternoon amounting to 0.4mm.
Sunday has broken with full cloud cover and a temperature of 6.8C at 08.00
November and Autumn Summary.
November
The month began with mild temperatures by day, 14.4C on the 1st, but the nights were cold with three nights when the thermometer dropped below zero producing a minimum of -2.1C on the morning of the 6th.
The month continued in this pattern as frequent weather fronts crossed the country followed by brighter, cooler periods. The coldest night occurred on the night of the 25th when the thermometer dropped to -2.8C, being 6C below the November average minimum.
Although the daytime temperatures held up well, being 0.3C above the 33-year average, the average night temperatures were 1.5C below. This gave a mean of 6.01C (-0.6C) compared to the very cold November of 1985, which produced a mean of 3.7C and 1994 with 10.1C.
There were 11 nights when an air frost occurred with the November average being 7.
The other notable feature was the lack of rainfall with just 60.3mm, the second successive month with a below average total. This was 32mm below the 33-year average compared to 53mm in October, a significant reduction of 85mm over two months compared to the average, so it is no wonder our rivers continue to run very low.
The strong sunshine total of 86.6 hours was the highest figure over the past four years since this instrument was installed. It is interesting to note that November produced 4 more hours of sunshine than October. The gloomy November of 2015 only gave us 16.4 hours.
Autumn
The three complete months of September to November constitute autumn for meteorological records. This autumn the mean was 0.1C above the 33-year average being exactly the same as the autumn of 2016.
The rainfall total for this three-month period was 167mm, being 69% of the 33-year average or 73mm below. The contrasting years were in 1985 with 116mm and 2006 with 401mm.
We enjoyed 284 hours of strong sunshine over the three months.