Wednesday 30th.
The very wide weather front that escaped around the northern ridge of high pressure on Tuesday, brought unexpectedly more thick cloud and precipitation than was forecast by the experts or thought to be possible by me. There were several areas of rain and drizzle that crossed our area, which deposited a very welcome 7.2mm that took the monthly rainfall to 28.4mm being 47% of my 41-year average. This was the wettest day since 7th June when 7.9mm was recorded. The welcome rain refilled two of my large water buts with around 400 litres, so minimal watering of garden last night. The persistent cloud and lack of sunshine limited the rise in temperature so that the maximum of 21.0C, logged at 14.44, was 1.7C below my long-term average. The cloud cover meant the opposite overnight providing us with a mild night as the thermometer did not sink below 15.1C in the early hours of Wednesday at 03.44 being 3.2C above average.
The start to Wednesday revealed total cloud cover from the back edge of the weather front with little increase in temperature by 08.00, when 15.7C was logged. The humidity at 08.00 read 90.3%, very high, that resulted from the mild night and precipitation over the past twenty-four hours. Hopefully, there will be more sunshine later today as the disturbed area from the weather front edges away.
Although we had the persistent cloud on Tuesday there has been little change in the barometric pressure that read 1020.2mb at 08.00, down just 1mb since Monday, as the ridge of high pressure from the Azores High is still extending over the UK, however the low pressure systems over Scandinavia with another over Iceland are relatively close by and having an influence on our weather as yet another weather front is now likely to cross our area on Thursday, travelling around the northern edge of the anticyclone. Last night the experts varied between two hours of light rain and seven hours of thundery rain on Thursday. Today there is more agreement that Thursday could bring multiple showers during daylight hours.
The original mansion at Compton Acres was demolished in the 1960s, along with the Arts and Crafts English Garden. The area was sold for development into flats, leaving the themed gardens as the Compton Acres of today.