Monday 23rd March
The weather on Sunday was as forecast, that saw the cloud arrive and increase after noon resulting in the high of 13.7C being recorded just after mid-day at 12.31, rather than late afternoon as on a sunny day. Initially overnight, the temperature began to fall again but the radar showed high, thin cloud building from the northwest just before 03.00 with a minimum of 1.6C logged at 05.57 early Monday, thus no frost after three consecutive frosty nights.
After dawn on Monday banks of mist could be seen that only slowly began to dissipate after around 08.00 as the sun struggled to break through the thin high cloud, raising the temperature to 4.4C by 08.00. A transitory ridge of high pressure will mean a dry day today but the cloud cover will thicken as the day progresses, thanks to a cold front edging closer from the northwest before it dissipates under the higher pressure to the southwest.
We have two more days when the maximum will be above average before a brief, chilly episode arrives on Wednesday and Thursday with maxima below average, which will mean the brief, early springlike weather has come to an end.
The brief ridge of high pressure will sink back southwest to the Azores high on Tuesday, its home, that will allow a deep depression to drift between Scotland and Iceland that will dominate our weather mid-week. As the depression edges closer and pressure drops, it will result in a cloudy day with the wind increasing significantly during Tuesday and into Wednesday with the possibility of rain late on Tuesday.
As the low pressure ease towards Scandinavia it will direct a flow of cold air from the northwest, that will have originated from north of Iceland and Greenland, thus very cool. Maxima on Wednesday and Thursday will be back to single figures. A significant drop compared to highs from recent warm days.
However, at the moment this looks to be short lived, very chilly spell as the forecast surface pressure charts for the end of the week indicate that the Azores high is likely to send a ridge of higher pressure back across the UK as the depression heads towards the north of Scandinavia that will see the temperatures begin to recover to around average, but no return to the very warm days of last week.