Thursday 25th September
The pesky northeasterly breeze continued to bring cool air over the UK on Wednesday that again restricted the temperature rise to a maximum of 16.3C at 15.29, being 2.7C below average. Cloud built up around midday for a couple of hours or so before late afternoon sunshine ended the day on a bright note. It was the fourth successive dry day with the UV level at its peak just into the ‘Moderate’ level.
Clearing skies overnight again meant a cold night although unlike previous early mornings the minimum was not around sunrise but was just after midnight at 01.42. Over the next two hours the thermometer slowly crept upwards to hover round 5C until an hour after sunrise when it then reached 6.3C by 08.00.
Thursday began bright although the sunshine was initially limited by a band of cloud on the eastern horizon that had drifted in across the London area from the North Sea. The sun began to rise above the cloud just after 07.00.
The recent anticyclone continues to ease away over Scandinavia but will still be the driving force for our weather over the next two days, blocking the advance of a weather front forming in the eastern Atlantic. However, by Saturday it will have moved much further away thus allowing the Atlantic depression to edge closer with a cold weather front likely to cross the country during daylight hours with possible precipitation, quantities difficult to estimate as the front is likely to thin and fragment on its journey across land.
The first signs of a significant change in weather pattern will be on Friday afternoon when the wind direction will veer from the recent northeasterly to east and southeast that will have collected more moisture from its crossing of the North Sea resulting in cloudy conditions with minimal sunshine.
Ex tropical storm and Hurricane Gabrielle will slowly fizzle out as by the weekend it reaches the shores of Portugal and Spain. The cooler waters will have deprived the weather system of much energy.
There is evidence of coppicing at Westonbirt Arboretum from 1292. First use of the name “Weston Birt” was in 1309. This was taken from Weston, a settlement to the west of Bowlden Road, and Birt from the lord of the manor, the Bret family.
