The overnight rain Tuesday into Wednesday was very welcome (7.9mm) but the depression centred over Northern France brought an extensive area of thick cloud and rain over southern England that circulated ever so slowly. As a result the rain drops in the morning turned to persistent rain all afternoon and into the evening eventually ceasing just before 19.00. These many hours of rain produced another 8.6mm of rainfall that brought the monthly total to 23.9mm, which is still 34mm below the 37-year average.
Not only was Wednesday wet but very cold. The thermometer refused to rise above 8.9C, being 5.4C below the average, that combined with the strong wind gusting to 25mph particularly in the morning, produced a wind chill that meant it felt a degree or two lower when outside.
As the depression eased away the cloud thinned and the clearing sky meant another cool night with a minimum of 0.9C that produced a ground frost.
Welcome sunshine greeted the new day on Thursday that lifted the temperature to 4.7C at 08.00. However, the very cold day and cool night meant the soil temperature at a depth of 5cm dropped to 5.9C, not good news for gardeners.
The depression over northern Germany has meant a change in the wind direction again and today has backed into the north but less strong than on Wednesday.
