Thursday 26th February
Although there was no sustained sunshine on Wednesday there were brief glimpses of warm sunshine between breaks in the cloud, it was a mainly bright day with the absence of rain. The flow of warm air from the Azores region once again resulted in temperatures by day and night well above average with a maximum of 13.9C at 15.17 and a minimum of 9.7C at 04.52 eariy Thursday being +5.6C and + 7.8C respectively.
The adjacent high-pressure over the Continent has been acting as a buffer to the advance of low pressure systems coming in from the Atlantic, however, later today and into Friday it will give way to a depression and its associated weather fronts arriving over the UK. This will mean today and Friday will be relatively cloudy with rain this evening, likely extending into Friday morning. A back track of the radar indicates the lower and thicker cloud arriving over our area around 07.00.
There is the likelihood of a minor ridge of higher pressure edging across the UK on Saturday to give a brighter, perhaps sunnier day, however, temperatures will be lower than of late.
The indication on Wednesday that Saharan dust might reach the UK did not occur over southern England, I assume, as yesterday I saw no evidence of light dust on horizontal surfaces and of course there was no rain that would have washed it out of the atmosphere, if indeed it had reach our shores, leaving an evidential coating.
What is the Met Office?
The Met Office is Britain’s national weather service and provides forecasts, weather alerts, warnings, predictions, and reports about climate change. It also provides flooding information and air quality measurements.
The Meteorological Office, as it was known until 2000, was founded back in 1871 by Vice Admiral Robert Fitzroy, initially as a service to mariners. It then began publishing reports in newspapers and has latterly become a website and app, while also providing forecasting for TV and radio broadcasting.
It is financed by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and has been based at the Exeter Business Park since 2003.
The Met Office is not the only weather provider to cover the UK, although it is the brand that is used and approved by the British government. The BBC had a period of consulting MeteoGroup, but has since switched back to the Met Office.