Tuesday 30th December
Monday followed the recent pattern of gloomy, dull days with no UV light triggering the sensor due to the persistence of the thick cloud, dragged in from the North Sea by the nagging northeasterly breeze that had picked up moisture in its travels. The cloud prohibited any sunshine so no limited warmth to lift the temperature that peaked at 5.1C, being 2.4C below average. There was little variation overnight with the thermometer hovering around 4.5C until just before 02.00 when the temperature began a very slow slide downwards with a minimum of 3.2C at 07.36, which was 1.3C above average.
After first light on Tuesday the sky revealed the beginnings of an improvement, as regards the cloud cove. There was at first a small area of minimum cloud then a band of clear sky across the eastern horizon by 08.15 that indicated, hopefully, that there might be a clearance as the morning progressed, which would allow some sunshine to arrive. By 08.20 the first weak sunshine was evident, such an improvement after so many gloomy days.
The recent anticyclone is still hanging on that will dominate our weather for today, but there are signs that a low pressure system, currently north of Iceland, will slide southeastwards towards Scandinavia that will herald a significant change in our weather.
A cold front will make its way down across the country during the afternoon, behind it will be the major change with the colder air stream following. By tonight the first signs will be evident as the wind, during the evening, will back a few degrees to come from the north, rather than as during the previous week, from the Northeast. This will herald a flow of much colder air, an Arctic airstream, that will mean the maximum over the next few days will struggle to get much above freezing and night frost. The upside will be very welcome sunshine, however, that will not do much to lift the temperature.
There could be some snow on high ground in Scotland in the next few days and towards the end of the week, over the moors of the West Country