The brisk westerly breeze on Tuesday, a cooler direction, meant that the day was cool with a maximum of just 8.7C, which was 1.4C below average making it the second coolest day this month, 8.4C on Monday. However it was a dry day.
The thermometer steadily fell during the evening to reach a minimum of 2.4C at 19.59 making it the coldest night this month also since 12th October (1.0C).
Yet another weather front approached the UK during the evening pushing its associated cloud ahead of the rain band thus the thermometer did an about turn at 20.00 and started to rise again. By 08.00 on Wednesday the thermometer registered 9.2C.
The rain began to fall again at 05.45 on Wednesday with a heavy short burst of intense rain at 07.35. The precipitation for the past twenty-four hours amounted to 8.5mm taking the total to 110.9mm being 124% of the 38-year average.
Incidentally, almost all my rain readings are taken from the standard Meteorological Office 5inch copper rain gauge. On the very rare occasion I am not at home to take the reading at 08.00, the automatic rain gauge is used as a back up but can on occasion give a slightly less accurate reading due to air currents affecting the precipitation captured as the gauge is one metre above ground level. However, yesterday there was an obvious problem with a gross under reading. On inspection I discovered that a bird had used the gauge as a brief stopping point and had left a deposit in the gauge thus blocking the progress of the captured rainfall to the tipping mechanism, but it was very quickly cleared and reinstated.
I noted that on the 22nd Thames Water announced that the hosepipe ban had been lifted. Perhaps no coincidence that two days earlier I noted that water had begun to flow above ground at Winterborne Monkton, close to where the River Kenner rises. The substantial recent rainfall, combined with minimal evaporation, will likely mean that water has begun to refill the aquifers.