The Continental Air arriving on a very light southeasterly air stream on Monday pushed the thermometer to 28.0C at 1456 after thin, high cloud had cleared. With continuing strong sunshine the temperature edged upwards to reach 28.3C at 15.21 and a record breaking 28C at 16.23. This was 1.4C above the previous record set in 2004 and a very significant 10.2C above the 37-year average.
No breeze was detected at head height but the anemometer 3m above ridge height struggled to reach just 8mph on one occasion but for most of the day was stationary.
A mild night followed with a minimum of 11.4c, which was 2.3C above average.
We have now enjoyed 16 day consecutive dry days. Even so the daily evaporation from ground sources and plant life means a loss of equivalent rainfall of over 2mm daily.
The dry ground is holding the warmth overnight with the soil temperature at a depth of 5cm reading 17.3C at 08.00. At the end of last month it had dropped to 11C.
There was fog at dawn that limited visibility to 200m but it was less dense than on Monday and the sun soon got to work that began improving visibility by 06.45. The strong sun has been continuous since sunrise that gave a temperature of 15.3C at 08.00.
The barometric pressure is holding high even though the centre of the anticyclone is now just north of the Black Sea.
Update at 16.00: September record broken for second day as the thermometer soared to a maximum of 29.2C at 14.62, which is a significant 10.2C above the 37-year average.
