Tuesday 16th December
Monday gave us a dry morning with the rain beginning at 14.30, continuing overnight and into Tuesday. The wind continued from a southerly direction that again brought a mild and moist airstream, which produced a maximum of 11.2C at 12.50 being 3.7C above average. The minimum of 7.7C, logged at 07.55 early Tuesday, was 5.8C above average.
The temperature hovered around 10.3C for most of the night, however, there was a distant and abrupt change in the early hours. At 03.45 the barometer began to rise heralding the departure of the recent low pressure, as a result the wind veered into the northwest. At 05.15 the thermometer responded to the change in wind direction, a cooler direction, that resulted in the temperature dropping steadily to read 7.8C at 08.00.
Tuesday will give us a cloudy and breezy morning, with the rain ceasing, as the back end of the weather front slowly edges eastwards, hopefully during the afternoon it will become brighter as the cloud thins. The barometric pressure is already rising rapidly as the beginning of a ridge of high pressure edges across the country. This will keep the next weather front at bay until later on Wednesday when the cloud will build again and possible rain arrive late in the afternoon, due to another deep depression heading to the north of the Atlantic, near Iceland.
The brisk northwesterly is producing a wind chill this morning, the first this month, as a result although the thermometer read 6.4C at 08.45, outside it felt more like 4.4C. Tomorrow the wind will back to come from a more southerly direction, as a result the daytime maximum will return well above average. The clearing sky under the ridge of high pressure will result in a cold night to follow with a minimum close to or just below zero.
The very extensive and elongated weather front that brought all the rain produced 16.1mm of precipitation, the heaviest before midnight easing in the early hours but continuous. The very active area of the rain band was just to the west of our area. The monthly rainfall now totals 84.8mm compared to my 42-year record of 93.1mm, so close to the average with half of the month to come.
Rising water in the upper reaches of the River Kennet at Winterborne Monkton triggered the depth gauge at 20.45 last night, 15th December, having been dry since the 12th, when the last substantial roam fall fell.