Friday 24th April
Thankfully, the wind was not quite so strong on Friday, but still very gusty, with a maximum of 21mph at 14.17, that, combined with wall to wall sunshine lifted the temperature to a maximum of 18.9C at 16.01. This peak was 4.6C above my April average making it the warmest day since the 8th (24.1C). The overnight minimum was a little lower than forecast reaching a low of 1.2C at 06.14, just after the sunrise in Marlborough at 05.53, being 2.7C below average that produced a short-lived ground frost.
I have recently mentioned the considerable loss of equivalent rainfall due to evaporation from ground sources and plant life. Yesterday was the greatest loss all month with a daily total of 4.1mm that took the monthly total to 59.1mm. The ground is getting very dry, that, combined with a drier air flow, resulted in a minimum humidity level of just 34.9% at 18.09.
It was great to see after dawn that no cloud had drifted in from the North Sea, which resulted in glorious sunshine after sunrise, that had slowly lifted the temperature to 5.9C by 08.00. We have anther fine sunny day ahead with likely wall to wall sunshine, which will possibly push the temperature a little higher than on Thursday.
The jet stream has been forming, and is forecast for most of next week, to form an omega block, which is a stalled, high-pressure pattern like the Greek letter omega. As the jet stream arrives towards the UK it is looping to the north over the country before dropping back downwards towards eastern Europe. This pattern will see the wind continue to come from an easterly quadrant, sometimes a little further south and later over the weekend a little further north. With the centre of the anticyclone almost over the UK the strong winds are slowly abating as the pressure differential reduces. Yesterday the high pressure had a reading of 1034mb whilst the air was rushing to the depression that had a centre pressure of 985b.
Is there a case of ‘deja vu’ with our weather?
Yesterday I wondered if the weather this year was producing a similar pattern to that we experienced 2025. The records show that January and February were very wet months, both in 2025 and 2026, well above average, likewise the months of March and April were well below average in both years. The rainfall this month of just 15.4mm is only 23% of my 42-year record and with little rain indicated in the forecast for the rest of the month this will be another very dry April. April 2025 produced just 11.5m of rainfall. At the moment, April 2026 is my sixth driest year since my station started in 1984. The driest April I have experienced was in 1984 when just 2mm of precipitation was recorded in my then, new, Met Office 5″ standard copper rain gauge.