The warmth began to return on Thursday with a bright morning and sunny intervals that had lifted the thermometer to a peak just after midday, rather than late afternoon as last week, with a maximum of 22.3C at 12.25, being just below my long-term average (-0.4C). This change in pattern was the result of variable cloud drifting across after that time, which restricted the sunshine and saw the temperature plateau around 21C until early evening at 20.00, after that time the thermometer then began to ease downwards.
The anemometer came to a standstill at 20.57 Thursday evening and has been stationary up to the time of writing this report so that is almost 12 hours of still conditions. The cloud overnight meant another mild night which saw the temperature only fall to 14.3C at 05.48, just after sunrise in Marlborough at 05.20, being 2.4C above average. This also coincided with the cloud cover beginning to thin around sunrise that allowed weak sunshine at first then strong sunshine after 07.30 that had pushed the thermometer to 20.3C by 08.00, which made it the warmest start to a day at that time since the 17th.
Friday brought the beginning of another hot period with the thermometer likely to reach its highest for a fortnight, which means it could approach the heatwave threshold of 27C, but only for one day! The next few days will continue to be hot.
The eastern section of the anticyclone has toppled further south that has resulted in the air stream coming from the west today, a less cold direction than the northerly track of the last two days. The increase in temperature is also due to the calm conditions as the anticyclone has continued to build over the UK, which will see the calm conditions continue and little chance of a shower. The barometric pressure has risen another 2mb since Thursday with a reading of 1020.mb at 08.00, the highest pressure since the 11th, which was in the middle of the recent heatwave.
Compton Acres is a large privately owned garden in Poole, Dorset. It was founded in 1920 by Thomas William Simpson, an entrepreneur who had become wealthy through the manufacture of margarine.