Category: News

Yesterday brought interesting weather. There were squally showers throughout most of the morning with a small disturbance at 0955. The winds increased, the showers turned from rain to small hail then briefly to snow. The barometric pressure made a dramatic rise of 1mb in the matter of a few minutes before dropping back again as the depression passed close by. Precipitation amounted to 5.1mm, the maximum gust of wind was recorded at 35mph and the peak temperature at 6.9C (mean is 10.4C). The rain stopped before noon and the sky brightened a little with 1 hour of strong sunshine during the afternoon. Decidedly not spring like weather!

Although meteorologically we have just moved from winter to spring, neither the calendar nor the weather recognize this arbitrary arrangement with a decidedly wintry outlook this week. I thought this Japanese Proverb worth considering – “One kind word can warm three winter months”.

February 2016 was a very changeable month. It started very mild with four days in the first week that had maxima in double figures (10.4 – 12.6C) when the mean is 7.1C, with winds mainly from a westerly direction.

With the wind then backing to come from a northeasterly direction for a few days, maximum temperatures fell below the mean with a very cold day on the 13th that produced a maximum of only 3.6C. There were eleven nights when an air frost occurred, the most severe recorded on the 16th with a low of -5.0C.

The mean temperature for February was 0.3C above the long-term average.

Rainfall for the month totalled 70.1mm, just 5mm above the long-term average. There were 14 dry days with the wettest 24-hour period occurring on the 6th with 22.7mm.

Although there were six days when no strong sunshine was recorded the total for the month was 62.55 hours with the 18th being the sunniest producing 7.11 hours.

A February record was set on the last two days of the month with the peak UV level the highest I have recorded (2.5 and 2.6 respectively on a scale of 0 – 10) since this instrument was installed in 2010.

Winter 2015/16 A stream of meteorological records has been broken over the last few years with another being set for the past winter. It was the warmest I have recorded since this station began in 1984 being 2.2C above the long-term average. It has been the warmest in England since records began in the 17th century, the Met Office has said.

The Central England Temperature (CET) series began in 1659 and this winter has beaten the previous record set in 1868-69. The CET is the longest temperature record in the world and is based on measurements at three observation stations within a roughly triangular area between Bristol, Lancashire and London.

Rainfall for the three months of winter totalled 264mm being 14mm above the long-term average.

It is unusual to have so few days with the wind coming from an easterly or northeasterly direction in winter. This year just 3 and 6 respectively were recorded for the three months.

During these winter months we enjoyed 131 hours of strong sunshine, which is 53 hours less than last year when this instrument was installed so no long-term comparison can be made for Marlborough.

Yesterday was another dry day with 0.78 hours of strong sunshine but over 8 hours of hazy sunshine. The wind late in the day changed into a more southerly direction and cloud cover increased during the evening, which reversed the dropping temperature from a minimum of 2.9C to 8.6C at 0800 and brought rain showers. The maximum UV level for the last two days has been a record high for February since this instrument was installed in 2010 at 2.6 (range 0 – 10).

The north-easterly winds yesterday, gusting to 29mph, brought a significant wind-chill making it feel some 4C below the actual temperature. The maximum temperature was 6.9C and with clearing skies overnight dropped to a minimum of -2.4C. Another day with strong sunshine amounting to 2.86 hours and the strongest UV reading of 2.5 (scale 0 – 10) since early October.

Yesterday was the sixth consecutive dry day, the longest dry period since mid-October. There was only 1 hour of strong sunshine but much bright, hazy sunshine. The maximum was 5.7C, which dropped to 1.1C just after 5am this morning. When the wind direction, strength, temperature and humidity were taken into account it produced a wind chill factor that meant it felt like -3.3C.