The air stream, originating from far south, continued to bring the subtropical air on Thursday that gave us a very warm and sunny day with the thermometer rising to a peak of 24.1C at 15.38, which made it the second warmest day this month after the very high of 28.1C on the 1st, being a significant 6.8C above average. This trend continued overnight giving us a very mild night with the thermometer not sinking below 13.8C logged at 04.57, almost exactly at sunrise in Marlborough at 04.58, also being a significant 6.8C above my long-term average. The day was dry with the UV level of 7.0 again, reaching at its peak, rising to the ‘Very High” category.
At first on Friday there was variable cloud, however, by 07.30 this was beginning to disperse and breaks of sunshine appeared. As the anticyclone to the south edges closer the wind today will become much less breezy than of late varying in direction between west-southwest and west. The day will be even warmer than on Thursday, however, the air is more humid than of late due to the long-travel of the air over the Atlantic.
The high pressure to the South is winning the battle of the two main weather systems, edging a little further north, with the pressure continuing to slowly rise, up 5mb since Tuesday. Thus there is little evidence at the moment of any precipitation over the next few days.
The rainfall total for May stands at just 23.9mm against the 41-year average of 60.4mm, whilst the last two days has seen the equivalent of 3mm of rainfall lost to the atmosphere due to evaporation from plant life and the ground.