Category: News

The frequent heavy showers have been accompanied by very strong gusts of wind with a peak of 41 mph at 1311 hours yesterday as the low pressure slowly moved across the country. The rainfall was 3.2mm but there were a couple of hours of strong sunshine between the frequent showers. Surprisingly, the UV level has been raised over the last two days and rated as ‘High”.

The last twenty four hours brought 13.3mm of rainfall taking the total this month to 28.8mm, which is greater than the totals for either April or March.
Strong sunshine recovered to 4.2 hours with the UV level the strongest this year. The wind from a southerly direction lifted temperatures yesterday with a maximum of 16.7C, close to average for early May and a minimum of 10.6C overnight, the warmest night since early November.

The overnight rainfall totalled 7.8mm, the greatest daily amount since 22nd February. The recent cold air has been replaced with much warmer air from a southerly direction such that at 0800 today the current temperature was 12.4C, the warmest morning once early November.

The minimal rainfall yesterday brought the total to 17.7mm, 29% of the long-term average. The gardens are very dry, not only from the minimal rainfall but that 72mm of moisture has evaporated into the atmosphere this month.
April has also been warmer than average and the mean will be almost 1.5C above.

Although maximum temperatures have recovered a little from the very cool day on the 26th, yesterday produced a peak of 12.6C, which is 1.5C below the mean for late April. Winds backing into a westerly direction, rather than from a northerly quarter, brought the small improvement. However, the total hours of sunshine have increased again with 9.43 hours yesterday making a total for the month of over 172 hours.
The modest rainfall this week has brought the total for April to 17.5mm, which is only 28.5% of the long-term average.