Friday 13th November
The Arctic air meant a cold day on Thursday even though we had several hours of glorious sunshine. The thermometer eventually reached 6.7C at 12.00, which was 3.6C below the November average making it the coldest day since 19th February. The minimum of -2.8C at 07.53 early Friday, was a significant 6.8C below average being the coldest day since 22nd March.
It was interesting to observe the falling temperature yesterday evening. The air temperature reached freezing point, -0.1C, at 18.42 before continuing to a low of -0.6C at 19.07 before, surprisingly, it started to climb, reaching +0.9C at 20.27. A glance at the radar showed that a localised area of thin, high cloud had temporarily drifted across temporarily halting the fall in temperature. By 23.01 the temperature had again dropped to freezing (-0.1C) on its downward trend for the rest of the night.
Bright sunshine greeted the new day on Friday under clear skies. The Arctic air will mean another cold day today before, during the late night, changes will see the Arctic air very slowly replaced by a warmer air stream coming from a southeasterly direction. However, tonight we will still be under the last of the Arctic air so another frosty night ahead. Temperatures will recover a little over the weekend, to nearer the November average, and the absence of any more air frosts.
This about turn in our weather will be due to the short visit of a high pressure system that is slowly emigrating towards central Europe over the weekend. Today, Friday, it is centred over the UK that will give us a fine, dry but cold day. However, it will be replaced by low pressure system, currently with three centres just to the west of the UK, pushing weather fronts across the country on Sunday, probably producing light rain showers.
Just noted that the air temperature rose above freezing at 09.04.
In my October review I added a paragraph investigating the trend of the first autumn air frost moving later in the year. The record since my station began in 1984 still stands at 18th November, although the 13th November this year confirms the overall trend.
The image is of the inside of the chapel at the National Memorial Arboretum.