Wednesday 29th October
Although the wind was blustery and from the west on Tuesday, a cooler direction, the bursts of sunshine lifted the temperature to a maximum of 14.0C at 13.50, however, this was still below the October average at -0.9C. Once again, unusually, the temperature began to lift a little overnight from 10.4C at 21.00 to 11.7C at 01.00 before sinking back again with a minimum of 10.5C at 05.46 and stabilised there with the exact same temperature at 08.00. The mild night meant the low was 3.C above average.
Wednesday arrived with thin cloud limiting any sunshine after dawn. A cold front will pass over the area around midday with a little precipitation ahead of it. Towards the northwest cloud can be seen building ahead of the weather front and rain band.
Thursday will see a minor ridge of high pressure push over the UK with a fine day likely. The wider picture shows seven areas of low pressure circling the UK with a deep low moving in from the Atlantic on Friday, however, although this will bring rain and blustery conditions the centre will change course to track up the west side of the country as it deepens, thus although unsettled weather heading our way nothing too severe for the rest of the week.
Hurricane Melissa is now very slowly tracking northeast and will continue to abate as it crosses land and into the cooler mid-Atlantic waters, already down to a category 4 from a category 5 hurricane. Time will tell if it has any energy left to have any effect on our weather as it approaches our shores, that is if it is picked up by the Jet Steam.
These hurricanes start off the west coast of Africa as disturbances then can develop into tropical storms, intensifying as they move westwards into much warmer tropical seas. The sea temperature must be at least 27C for a tropical storm to develop into a hurricane, Unusually, the seas around the Caribbean are currently 3C above that transition temperature, a degree above the normal for this time of year.