The very strong sunshine on Wednesday pushed the thermometer to a peak of 19.8C early in the afternoon at 14.47, which was 2.5C above my long-term average and the warmest day for almost a week. There was an extremely strong burst of sunshine from 12.58 to 13.00 when the UV level briefly rose to a value of 7.2 being in the ‘Very High’ category for the second time this month after a similar occasion on Monday. For much of the hours just before and after that the UV level was in the High category between cloud breaks.
It has been a very mild night, that is three in succession, with a low of 12.4C logged in the early hours of Thursday at 01.59 being a significant 5.4C above my long-term average. This was due to the persistent thick cloud cover and the passing of a warm front that also produced a little rainfall amounting to 0.3mm that triggered the automatic rain gauge at 04.39.
Thursday revealed a sky with 8/8 cloud cover being the hang back of cloud from the warm front that passed our way in the early hours. As the low-pressure fills and the high pressure fills, today will be the last day of strong winds for the next few days.
The depression centred over the north of the Scotland is the predominant driving force of our weather for the next couple of days bringing unsettled conditions. This low-pressure system is combining with the anticyclone currently centred over the Bay of Biscay that is bringing us a westerly air flow of sub-tropical air, hence the above average temperatures. However, the anticyclone will continue to moderate our weather as low pressure systems arrive from the Atlantic towards the north of the UK, with little indication of any substantial rainfall, any precipitation will arrive in the form of shower activity.
There have been yet again been headline reports in the press of heatwaves arriving with the UK basking in very high temperatures. However, the Met Office last month put out a statement that “different simulations produce different pictures of the weather forecast and one-off, single charts, do not provide the broader forecasting picture. The actual forecast is developed using a mix of of hundreds of computer model simulations”.