Friday 16th January
Friday was a wash out, and that describes the day very clearly as light rain and drizzle began just after 09.30, that steadily became heavier and continued until just after 17.00. It was especially heavy mid-afternoon from an extensive area of cloud moving up from the southwest. The rainfall for the past twenty-four hours amounted to 21.4mm taking the monthly total to 70.8mm against my 42-year average of 89.6mm.
Not surprisingly, under the thick bank of cloud and rain, that the temperature hovered along 8C for most of the day, which is where it started. However, after 16.00 the temperature began to oscillate again as the thermometer began a modest fall to around 5C until 22.00, then the sky began to clear and the thermometer dropped to a minimum of 1.7C at 01.16, being 0.5C above average. There followed a slight rise to reach 3.4C at 08.00.
Initially, Friday began clear although I observed radiation fog beginning to from in the River Og Valley just before 08.00. Shortly afterwards a thick blanket of fog rolled in limiting visibility to around 300m.
Perusing the forecast Jet Stream for the next few days indicates that the unsettled weather bringing sunshine and variable cloud will continue into the middle of next week. At that time, the predicted flow of the Jet Stream develops a distinctly different track breaking up, looping to the north around Iceland and going in strength that is likely to bring us a stream of much cooler and colder air arriving on an easterly air flow. There is the prospect of wintry weather arriving, but it is too far off for any certainty how the second half of next week will develop, but it is likely to end the flow of moist, mild air from the Atlantic.
I thought that a few colourful images from Madeira over the next few days would brighten the mainly dull days of January before the snowdrops arrive, that already are beginning to show the first green shoots above the ground.