Sunday 1st March
Although we had welcome, broken sunshine on Saturday, the brisk wind from the west meant it felt cooler outside, and in fact it was, as the thermometer eventually reached 10.1C at 15.08 in the afternoon sunshine. This high was 1.8C above average but the coolest day since the 19th.
Under clear skies in the early evening the temperature fell steadily away, however, advancing cloud from the next weather front meant the minimum of 4.6C was logged at 19.40, Saturday evening, after which time the temperature slowly climbed again reaching 8.1C at 08.00 Sunday.The cloud produced light rain just before 03.00 and had ceased just after 05.00 early Sunday, amounting to 1.6mm.
The total rain for February was 132.6mm, which was 195% of my 42-year record or plus 64.6mm.
Sunday arrived with the hang back of cloud from the weather front. The day ahead will be mostly cloudy with possible light rain mid-morning from a wide and extensive rain band travelling along the English Channel and across southern England, the current radar indicates that we will be on the northern edge, so rainfall is likely to be modest.
Looking ahead it appears that high pressure will edge towards and then east of the UK with a dryer and sunnier outlook into next week. The breeze will begin to come from an easterly quadrant. This is usually a much cooler direction but as the anticyclone edges eastwards it will pull warm air from around the Azores area, resulting in temperatures by day and night just above average for early March.