Friday gave us a bright start but sharp showers soon began to develop late morning. The daily rainfall amounted to 7.9mm bringing the August total to 74.6mm, which is 8mm above the 36-year average. The wind was often quite brisk, particularly as the rain squalls passed through with a maximum gust of 21mph.
Temperatures by day and night were depressed as the wind in the afternoon veered into the northwest and later north bring much cooler air. The maximum of 16.7C was 4.3C below the August average and occurred late morning at 11.29 and then began to fall back. With the northerly brisk breeze continuing overnight it was not surprising to find that the thermometer dropped well below average with a minimum of 9.2C (-2.4C) in the early hours of Saturday at 03.45.
Saturday arrived with a predominantly cloudy sky and the cool northerly persisting that meant it was the coldest start to a day at 08.00 since 6th June with the thermometer reading only 10.1C. The distinctly autumnal feel to the weather is due to a depression to the east circulating anticlockwise and an anticyclone in the eastern Atlantic circulating clockwise, as they do, bringing the very cool air down across the country from much further north.
