Friday 29th August
Thursday was not a summer’s day with much cloud cover, particularly in the afternoon and evening, that produced intermittent light rain. Just before 19.00 the rain radar showed a line of showers moving in from the southwest that ran along the Marlborough area for almost two hours with steady rain, there was also another modest fall that started just before 04.00 early Friday that slowly faded out by 07.30. The twenty-four hour rainfall total was 16.8mm that took the monthly total to 26.4mm compared to my 41-year average of 65.5mm.
After a bright dry start to the new day on Thursday, with one very brief shower at 09.50, the morning was sunny. However the cloud that built up after 11.00 depressed the rise in temperature so that a maximum of 20.2C was logged late morning at 11.39 being 1.9C below my long-term average. The reverse was true overnight as this cloud continued that was linked with a small low pressure system that developed over southern England that brought the early morning rainfall. A minimum of 13.1C was logged at precisely 00.00 or midnight, before the thicker cloud arrived on a warm front.
The start to Friday was very dull due to the thick cloud from the hang back of cloud associated with the warm weather front from the mini low-pressure system that ran along the southern counties of England. The temperature had lifted just a little to 13.7C by 08.00. The light rain stopped just after 07.30, the cloud began to thin and the sky brightened. Ahead is a day of sunshine and showers. At its closest this morning, the depression produced a barometric pressure reading of 994.2mb just after 05.00, which was the lowest pressure since 15th April.
The depression that had been parked to the north of Northern Ireland for a couple of days has begun to move eastwards and now over Scotland and begun to slowly fill. Saturday will see another deep depression arrive from the Atlantic heading towards Scotland that contains the remains of ex-tropical Storm Fernand. Thus, the weekend will bring more rain and windy conditions.
The changeable weather, with lower temperatures and frequent showers, appears as though Summer has departed and Autumn arrived early!
All my five water buts are now full to overflowing, with in excess of 1,000 litres, that will now not be needed for watering the garden over the weekend, considering the recent useful rainfall and expected additional precipitation.