Friday 24th October
Storm Benjamin gave us a glancing blow on Thursday with modest rainfall and wind strength, we got off lightly! The barometric pressure was rising rapidly after the very low pressure reading of 979.6mb at 04.07, the rate of increase was in excess of 2mb/hour as the centre of the storm travelled eastwards with its centre to the south of our region.
Thursday was really a day of two parts, dry in the morning and rain setting in during the afternoon. A further 6.2mm of precipitation was recorded as the rain started falling at 15.45, for almost three hours, with the wind then beginning to gust strongly. The wind from the northwest, a cool direction, was also strong in the morning that depressed the temperatures with a maximum of just 12.1C at 13.16 being 2.8C below average.
During the early evening the sky began to clear with the result the temperature began to drop slowly reaching 5.9C at 17.34 and a minimum of 4.4C at 01.46 early Friday, which was exactly 3C below my long-term average.
Friday gave us a bright start under clear skies and weak sunshine to start the new day. The rain radar indicates shower activity edging in from the west but mainly travelling to the south of our region when viewed at 08.50.
The depression is now heading close to Scandinavia with the wind circulating anticlockwise, as they do around a depression, bringing an air stream originating to the north of Scandinavia. The worst of the rain is now over, possibly light rain Friday afternoon, with much drier weather for the weekend, but cool with maxima well below average.
Recent research. The Met Office’s research found that the UK remains a nation obsessed with the weather. On average, people spend 56.6 hours a year – equivalent to two days and nine hours – talking about it, with 60% saying it’s their go-to small talk topic.
Savernake Forest. King Henry VIII stayed at Savernake in 1535, where it is believed that his eye was then taken by his host’s daughter, Jane Seymour.