Thursday 18th June
After a few bright intervals in the early morning, Wednesday was predominantly cloudy but warm. Between 12.00 and 13.00 there were brief, very light bouts of drizzle but not sufficient to measure, thus recorded as a ‘trace’. Eventually the thermometer peaked at 21.3C being 0.6C above my long-term June average, mid-afternoon at 15.42. It was another mild night, under the thick cloud cover, with a minimum almost identical to the previous night with a low of 15.7C, logged at 03.22 early Thursday, being 5.5C above average.
Thursday arrived murky and dull with low cloud draping the Marlborough Downs and Savernake Forest, at 07.30 I observed and felt a little moisture in the air, but not sufficient to call drizzle. The evidence of this had disappeared from the radar by 07.50.
There has been little change in the tussle between the low pressure to the northwest and high pressure to the southeast, the barometric pressure has changed little, thus the southwest breeze will continue today. The depression has edged a little closer since yesterday throwing cloud across the country from a minor weather front that is currently exiting the east coast. The cloud should thin as the morning progresses and the sun to appear lifting the temperature above average again.
There is increasing confidence that the high pressure will begin to dominate our weather from Saturday with heatwave conditions arriving on Sunday and continuing well into next week.
We rely on the Met Office to provide us with weather data for their weather apps and much information available on line, so I thought that their recent press release might be of interest.
How is Met Office science reviewed?
Author: Met Office
Wed, 17 Jun 2026
Ensuring the quality, credibility and impact of scientific work is at the heart of the Met Office mission to help people stay safe and thrive.
Weather and climate science play a critical role in national decision-making, public safety and long-term environmental planning. For this reason, Met Office science undergoes rigorous scrutiny through a structured system of independent review. These processes help maintain the highest scientific standards while ensuring that intelligence continues to meet the needs of government, industry and the public.
But how does that review system work? Who is involved and why is it vital for the organisation’s scientific excellence?
The principle of independent scientific oversight
Met Office science is subject to expert external review. This ensures that scientific programmes, research and operations are robust, relevant and internationally credible. It also allows the organisation to remain aligned to emerging global developments in meteorology, oceanography, climate science and numerical weather prediction.
By drawing on specialists from universities, meteorological services and research institutions across the UK and abroad, the Met Office benefits from wide-ranging perspectives, enabling it to continuously refine its methods and improve its outputs.
The role of the Met Office Scientific Advisory Committee One of the key bodies involved in this review process is the Met Office Scientific Advisory Committee (MOSAC). The committee meets annually and evaluates all elements of national capability, including major scientific programmes such as foundation science, weather science and climate science. These are core to everything the Met Office delivers, and therefore require regular, high-quality scrutiny.