Friday 12th September
The radar all day on Thursday showed a rash of showers crossing southern England that produced 9.6mm of precipitation in total. Once again the variable cloud cover limited sunshine so that the maximum early in the afternoon at 14.38, with a peak pf 17.3C, was 1.7C below average. Although the past night seemed chilly the minimum of 9.6C was 0.9C above average logged at 06.48, just a few minutes after sunrise in Marlborough at 06.36.
The mainly clear skies gave us a very sunny start to the new day on Friday that raised the temperature to 11.1C by 08.00. The recent complex depression is still lurking to the north of Scotland that will continue to throw showers across the country, already building over the west country heading our way. Between 06.15 and 07.30 they were passing on a southwesterly track just to the north of Marlborough and heavy over Swindon. When the temperature increases, as the sun gets to work in these unstable conditions, it heats the air that then becomes lighter and rises, as it gets higher it cools and the moisture condenses into rain showers.
The forecast track of the jet stream indicates that it will continue across the Atlantic, dipping to the south of the UK, rushing low-pressure systems towards us over the next few days.There is a strong possibility of a deep depression bringing heavy rain and strong winds on Sunday that has resulted in the Met Office issuing a yellow weather warning across southern England.
The new weather satellite MetOp-SG-A1 is just the beginning, according to a recent article. Five more satellites will follow over the coming decades, flying in pairs to provide continuous coverage. The mission is designed to deliver data that helps not just with day-to-day forecast, but also with longer-term climate models.
The Palladian villa of Stourhead House, built and modified by generations of the Hoare family, is the centre piece of the world famous landscape garden.