Tuesday 9th December
The very mild conditions continued on Monday with outbreaks of light rain and drizzle in the morning. The flow of warm air from mid-Atlantic meant another mild day that saw the thermometer rise to 12.8C at 12.33 being 5.3C above average. This continued overnight under a thick blanket of cloud from an extensive weather front. As a result the minimum of 11.1C, logged at 04.40 early Tuesday, was a significant 9.2C above my long-term average. It was the warmest night this month also since 14th November.
The arrival of Storm Bram, from the Atlantic, brought the start of more continuous and steady rain just before 22.00 and continued all night, only ceasing just before 08.00 as the back end of the main rain band edged eastwards. The daily rainfall total was 15.2mm. We have had rainfall on each day of this month that at the moment represents 67% of my 42-year record, however, we are only one week into to December.
Four out of the seven local Thames Water groundwater boreholes now indicate a rising level, only two, that at Water Acre north of Aldbourne and Longacre north of Lambourn indicate that the level is ‘Low”.
Tuesday will hopefully see an improvement, from the low cloud and drizzle, into the early afternoon as the last of the thick cloud begins to thin and move away.
Storm Bram is now heading towards the north of Ireland with the result we are on the periphery of the worst weather. However, there is a strong pressure gradient between the centre pressure of 960m and local of 1002mb at 0800, which will result in a breezy day for us as the air mass rushes from the high pressure to the low pressure, circulating anticlockwise around the centre of the depression.
There is a possibility of a very modest rise in pressure, originating near Iberia, that will quieten down the weather and bring a less wet period for the next two days before the modest anticyclone edges eastwards towards Germany by Thursday when the temperature will ease downwards a couple of degrees.