With the light wind and hot air mass originating in North Africa on Monday, it was not surprising to see the thermometer steadily climb to a maximum of 27.1C. This was not quite a September record for this station set up in 1984 as in September 2005 the peak was 0.1C higher and on 5th September 2004 the maximum was 0.2C higher. This peak was 8.4C above the 36-year average.
The air from a southerly direction always contains an element of pollution as it passes over the Continent but from North Africa it picks up very fine dust. Although there was almost no cloud on Monday the sky was light blue, not clear dark blue, and the UV only reached 3.9, being classed as ‘Moderate’. I also noted that the peak output from my solar panels was down about 0.5Kwh as compared to the output when the air came from the west or northwest earlier in the month when the cleaner air would have arrived after travelling over the sea.
Tuesday arrived with sunshine as soon as the sun got up that lifted the minimum of 11.4 C, being 2.2C above average, to 12.8C at 08.00.
