Thursday 22nd January
Wednesday was another of the wet, gloomy but mild days that saw rain falling for most of the daylight hours, a slight easing late afternoon became drizzle. There was a brief easing overnight, between 03.00 and 07.00, before another series of fragmented showers arrived early Thursday. The rainfall for the past twenty-four hours amounted to 16.1mm, this took the monthly total well above my 42-year record of 89.6mm, now standing at 104.6mm, with more to come. Once again the mild flow of Atlantic air meant both maximum and minimum were well above average at +2.1C and a significant +7C, respectively. The diurnal range was a minimal 1.0C.
The cloud was so thick and dense that no UV light triggered the UV sensor, at any time, and my 16 solar panels facing south, registered only a third of a kilowatt hour all day.
The start of Thursday was a repeat of several recent days with gloomy, wet and dark conditions, under a thick cloak of cloud. The radar shows a series of weather fronts crossing the UK so more rain during the day, especially this afternoon.
This month is already the wettest January since 2016, however, this will change today as more rain falls, to be the wettest since 2014 when a considerable total of 219.1mm was recorded, the wettest since my station began in 1984.
A stream of depressions are lining up to reach the UK with another deep low pressure system arriving on Friday that will have an even lower minimum centre pressure of 960mb, this will bring more rain and windy conditions in the morning.
There are signs that although it will be little cooler next week, the forecast of possible much colder weather is not thought to materialise, yet. The temperatures by day and night will be lower, closer to the late January average. The air flow from a southeasterly quadrant will probably continue well into next week, however, there could be colder weather arriving at the start of February, but that is a long way off to be confident of a major change in our current weather pattern.
The battle ground over the UK, between the large area of high pressure over eastern Europe and depressions encroaching from the Atlantic in the west, continues the unsettled conditions. There are variations between the different ‘weather models’ for the future although a few show very low temperatures values next week, this is currently the minority.