Monday 12th January
Sunday was a very significant day in our weather this month being the threshold where we transitioned from the cold Arctic air to a wet and warm air flow from the Atlantic. The day started with a temperature of 3.8C at 0800. From that time forward, the temperature graph showed a small but incremental increase until at 22.53, just before midnight, when a maximum of 10.6C was reached. This maximum was 3.5C above average and the highest peak since 18th December. The major change in the weather pattern was due to the adjacent low-pressure system wafting in the warmer Atlantic air behind three weather fronts that traversed the UK during the past twenty-four hours. There was a slight dip after this peak but around 9.5C was maintained for much of the early hours.
There was minimal precipitation during daylight hours but during the evening sporadic rain fell from two fragmented weather fronts, in narrow bands of thicker cloud.
We were greeted by much brighter conditions on Monday with small areas of blue sky, thin high cloud and a temperature of 9.3C at 08.00, being 2.2C above the average maximum for January. The weather radar shows a large area of cloud over the UK and within it areas that could produce shower activity brought along on the brisk southwesterly breeze.
We are now firmly under the influence of weather arriving from the Atlantic bringing much warmer but moist air. The week will see the unsettled conditions varying from day to day. The depression to the northwest will have a pall join it tomorrow producing a cloudy day with modest, sporadic rainfall, but warm with the maximum well above average. It will be all change on Wednesday as a transitory ridge of high pressure will have edged in going us a dry and sunny day after a very cool night with a possible light frost. However, by Thursday, an area of more persistent rain is likely to arrive giving us a wet day with a maximum close to the January average.