Monday 29th December
Sunday continued the recent trend of overcast day thanks to the brisk northeasterly wind dragging in cloud from the North Sea. Although the maximum of 5.4C was 2.1C below average, due to no sunshine to lift the temperature, the minimum of 3.6C, logged at 06.17 early Monday, was 1.7C above average due to the thick cloud cover acting as a duvet to minimise the loss of warmth into the atmosphere. This was a repeat of several recent days and nights.
Once again the diurnal range of temperature was minimal, just a difference of 1.8C between the maximum and minimum.
Monday once again struggled to come into life with gloomy conditions under the persistent thick cloud cover and a brisk northeasterly breeze. The humidity is still quite low with a reading of 81.6% at 08.00, the lowest for a week as the ground has begun to slowly dry out on the surface, following seven consecutive dry days. The possibility of cloud breaks arriving from the east, possibly later this morning, are now not likely as the cloud is not showing signs of breaking up, before this evening a cold front tracks south across the country. There is little to suggest that this weather front would produce any precipitation.
The dominant anticyclone has shown the first signs of beginning to relinquish its recent hold over the UK with a drop of 4mb since yesterday. The barometric pressure at 08.00 was 1028.9mb, still very high.
By Wednesday the recent dominant anticyclone will begin to lose its grip over the UK with a deep depression developing over Scandinavia. This will change the wind direction into a northerly, that is likely to bring a much cooler air stream with night frosts, especially Tuesday night into Wednesday.