Monday 4th August
Although Sunday morning was cool, dull and overcast until early afternoon the sun did break through that eventually lifted the temperature to a peak of 24.4C at 16.14 being 2.3C above my long-term average. A minuscule shower passed over Marlborough at 14.05 that produced very light rain for a couple of minutes, blink and you would have have missed it, which was not measurable and didn’t even fully dampen hard surfaces, thus recorded as a ‘trace’. The minimum of 14.9C recorded at 05.52 early Monday meant that the past night was mild with the low 3.7C above average.
First light on Monday revealed thin cloud on the eastern horizon that allowed a little brightness, however, this was very soon cut out by the advancing cloud, thus a mild and murky start to the new day under relatively calm conditions at the moment. The wind will pick up strength as the morning progresses. The breeze from the southwest started to pick up after 03.00 and will reach its peak early afternoon when any rainfall arrives.
The recent anticyclone has receded over the past twenty-four hours as the deep low pressure system, that has been hustled across the Atlantic on a strong jet stream, arrived over Scotland. The centre of this very deep low pressure is forecast to be 978mb at 12.00, whilst at 08.00 our barometric pressure was 1016.7mb, down 3mb since its high yesterday and dropping around 1mb every three hours. As the centre of the depression reaches across Scotland the isobars will close up indicating a much windier day for us. The first rain shown on the radar at 08.00 was just approaching the Isles of Scilly. The fragmented weather front will produce the thick cloud cover for much of the day that could produce light rain arriving after around mid-day, with a very modest total.
By Tuesday the deep depression will have left our shores and headed for Scandinavia with a ridge of high pressure reasserting itself that will bring a fine, dry and sunny day.