Windrush Weather

Saturday was memorable for the very strong winds, increasing during the evening and overnight gusting to 45mph at 02.15 early Sunday. The wind from the northwest gave an uninterrupted flow to my anemometer above ridge height. The thermometer reached a maximum of 11.3C at 13.03, which was 3.2C above my 40-year average. From that time the temperature slowly fell away dropping to a minimum 5.5C at 05.40 early Sunday.

The intermittent brief showers amounted to 6.5mm that took the monthly total 30.5mm, being 32% of the long-term average.

Sunday was a continuation of the very strong winds although showing a slight drop off in strength, the 10 minute average speed had dropped from 18mph on Saturday evening to 12mph Sunday morning. The drier winds from the north-northwest was shown in the humidity reading of 82% at 08.00, the lowest at that time since 4th July. The wind will veer a few more degrees into the north as the day progresses.

Storm Darragh has been slowly receding, now over the near continent, and becoming under the influence of a high pressure in the eastern Atlantic, shown by the barometric pressure rising to 1019.8mb at 08.00, up a significant 28mb. A rise of over 20mb in twenty-four hours is unusual.

Initially the advance weather from Storm Darragh saw the thermometer steady around 7C for much of the daylight hours on Friday but began to climb in the evening reaching a maximum of 12.4C at 23.45 being 4.3C above the average.The temperature then began to fall as a result of the wind veering from southwest into the west and then north-northwest dropping the temperature to a low of 6.4C at 08.00 Saturday. The wind strength was rising all the time and peaked at 41mph at 03.48.

N.B. My weather station is in the lee of higher parts of Marlborough when the wind is from a southwest quarter, although the anemometer is well above ridge height on my bungalow. There have been sporadic brief showers amounting onto 2.7mm. The wind chill at 08.00 meant it felt at least 2C colder outside than indicated on the thermometer.

During the evening the barometric pressure was dropping 3mb every hour as the depression closed in on our area. The pressure reading at 08.00 Saturday was 992.2mb, which was down a significant 34mb since the peak on Wednesday.

The start to Saturday revealed thick, low cloud and sporadic rain again as the wind strength had begun to fall slightly, but was still very strong.

The centre of Storm Darragh is crossing the country and will be over the east coast by midday when conditions will very slowly moderate but still strong wind gusts.

Thursday was another day that started calm, dry and dull but rain arrived in the mid-afternoon with the wind increasing producing strong gusts at 17.40 up to 25mph. The daily rainfall amounted to 8.5mm that took the monthly total to 21.3mm against the average for December of 94.0mm. The temperature at 08.00 was 12.8C but dropped away during daylight hours and after the rain band clear around 19.00 the rain stopped, the wind abated and the temperature began to fall away to reach a minimum of 3.4C at 07.51 early Friday. The maximum was 4.7C above average whereas the minimum was just 0.9C above average.

The barometric pressure has been rising overnight producing a short lived ridge of high pressure for the daylight hours of Friday. However, Storm Darragh is closing in. The centre of the depression at midnight was just west of Ireland but over the next twenty-four hours it will move eastwards across central England. Weather warnings have gone out for extreme wind gusts and more heavy rain.

After a very calm day on Wednesday when the maximum gust was 8mph it changed overnight. A weather front passed our way during darkness that saw the wind rise to a high gust of 23mph at 00.15 early Thursday and intermittent heavy rain that started at 18.15 and continued through the night that amounted to 9.1mm. The temperature rose to a high of 9.2C at 14.05 during daylight hours on Wednesday but then began a steady climb to peak at 12.9C at 06.25 early Thursday being a significant 4.9C above the long-term average, thus the night minimum was higher than the day time peak. The wind during this period backed from the southwest to south overnight. Not surprisingly, no UV light triggered the sensor.

Thursday again struggled to wake up under thick, low cloud and drizzle as the depression is close to Scotland feeding in the moist, warm air. The rain radar shows variable areas of low cloud producing drizzle during the morning. A further weather front will cross during the late afternoon that will see the wind gust strongly again with more heavy rain. The barometric pressure has dropped another 17mb with a reading of 1009.8mb at 08.00, the lowest pressure reading since 27th November.

Update: Store Darragh has just been named and will impact our area on Friday and into Sunday with strong winds and heavy rain.

The light airstream from the east and minimal sunshine meant a cool day on Tuesday that saw both the maximum of 7.2C logged at 13.32 and the minimum of 0.2C logged at 00.15 early Wednesday were below my long-term average with -0.8C and -2.2C respectively. Thankfully it was a very calm day with the greatest air movement logged at just 7mph, couldn’t call it a gust of wind.

Wednesday began with total cloud cover with the air movement coming from the southwest but again calm. Overnight the change of wind direction resulted on the thermometer rising after the low at 00.15 to reach 4.7C at 08.00.

A deep depression has formed in the eastern Atlantic and will proceed northeastwards, heading between Scotland and Iceland, thus influence our weather during the coming evening with the wind strengthening considerably and a few hours of steady rain overnight. Its central pressure was 975mb at midnight and forecast to top to 970mb by midday, a very low pressure.The barometric pressure read 1026.4mb at 08.00, the highest all month, but will soon begin to drop as the depression approaches.