Category: Commentary

Sunday:

Maximum of 9.4C, which was the lowest since 1st March and 0.6C below average
Minimum of -2.1C, which was the coldest night since 27th April and 5.8C below the 33-year average
UV level at 1.1, which was the lowest since 22nd February
Soil temperature at a depth of 5cm read 2.1C at 08.00, which was the lowest since 28th February
Temperature at 08.00 this morning was -1.7C, which was the coldest morning since 6th February
Barometric Pressure at 08.00 this morning reading 1026.1mb, which was the highest pressure since 31st October

However, we did have 5.67 hours of strong sunshine, making it the sunniest day since 30th October.

Due to the ridge of high pressure, that has been building for the past 36 hours, we enjoyed clear skies at dawn with continuous sunshine.

Saturday brought just 0.55 hours of strong sunshine. The limited sunshine and wind, gusting to 18mph, from a cooler westerly direction, meant a cooler day with a maximum of 12.0C, still 2C above the 33-year average.

Overnight, the clear skies meant a cold night with a minimum of 1.9C, almost 2C below average producing a ground frost.

This morning dawned bright with strong sunshine shortly after the sun rose above the horizon.

Friday was a dry day with limited sunshine, a total of 2.1 hours of strong sunshine was recorded. The daytime temperature fell away again for the third day with a maximum of 12.8C, still 2.8C above the November average.

The temperature dropped away to a low of 9.9C during the afternoon and early evening but just after 9pm the thermometer started to rise again as the cloud, associated with the approaching weather front, arrived so that that at 08.00 this morning the thermometer read 11.9C, the mildest start to a day for a week.

There was little wind during the daytime yesterday, maximum gust of just 7mph. However, after midnight as the weather front started to pass over the area, for a few hours there was more wind activity with a maximum gust of 14mph.

The rainfall over the past twenty-four hours, to 08.00 this morning, totalled 12.7mm, the wettest day since 2nd August. It is still raining this morning with low cloud draping the Marlborough Downs giving very misty conditions.

The sun eventually got to work on the fog on Thursday morning and gave us 4.3 hours of strong sunshine that pushed the thermometer, again, above the average with a maximum 13.5C (+3.5C).

The high barometric pressure had reduced 5mb, as the centre of pressure drifted southwards, but still gave exceptionally still conditions with one maximum gust of just 6mph. I had to go back through the records to find a day with even less wind and that was on the 18th January 2017 when the strongest movement of air was 5mph.

Last night was a repeat of the previous night as the clear skies and still conditions caused fog to form again with visibility even further reduced and down to 90m at dawn.

The thermometer fell away as expected in clear skies overnight to a minimum 4.9C, recovering as the fog formed to 6.9C at 08.00.

Slowly the cloud thinned on wednesday and the sun came through with 3.80 hours of strong sunshine that boosted the temperature to a maximum of 14.4C, which was 4C above the early November average.

The clear skies overnight meant that the thermometer dropped rapidly to a minimum of 0.7C, being 3C below the November average, at 02.40 this morning. Thereafter the temperature rose slowly to 2.2C at 08.00.

Fog formed in the early hours and at dawn visibility was down to 100m.

Summary for October 2017

Another rainfall record has been broken, exactly twelve months after the last occurrence. This time the record is again for lack of rain.

With just 31.3mm of precipitation, October has been the driest month since my records began in 1984, a period of 34 years. The previous low record was set in 2016 with 31.5mm when the average was 86.4. This means a short fall of 55.1mm as compared to the long-term average or just 36%.

The heaviest twenty-four rainfall total was 10.2mm on the 19th, this midway between the wettest period of the 17th to 24th, being 73% of the monthly rainfall. We enjoyed 14 totally dry days.

The wettest October occurred in 2004 with 159.3mm, which was almost twice the average.

It has been the ninth driest January to October period I have recorded with a total of 572mm. The extremes for these ten months are 409.0mm in 1996 and 920.6mm in 2014.

It is interesting to note that the equivalent moisture lost to the atmosphere from ground sources and plant life during the month was 27.9mm. Therefore most of the rain that fell in October has been offset by evaporation.

Due to the Jet Stream providing a conveyor belt of frequent depressions the wind has been predominantly between south and west, bringing mild air, sometimes from as far south as the Azores.

This mild, moist air has meant a relatively warm month with the mean temperature 1.4C above the 33-year average. There were 21 days with above average maxima. The peak temperature of 18.9C was recorded on the 16th, some 4.3C above the average.

The stormy period around the 21st meant very strong winds gusting to 40mph. However, at the end of the month the opposite was true as a couple of very still days occurred with hardly a breath of wind such as a maximum of just 7mph on the 30th.

We suffered one air frost, that on the night of the 30th, when the thermometer fell to -0.5C, cold enough to bring to an end the wonderful colour of bedding plants that we have enjoyed for so many months.

During the month we have enjoyed 82.3 hours of strong sunshine, the sunniest being 5th with 7.9 hours followed by the 7.36 hours on the 25th. There were several dismal days of thick cloud, which were often low enough to drape the tops of the Downs in mist giving us eight sunless days.

Fog was recorded on three days.