Friday was the fourth day this month when the maximum temperature reached the heatwave threshold of 27C with a peak of 28.4C logged at 16.22 being 6.3C above my long-term average. Variable, thin high cloud in the afternoon limited the peak temperature as well as peak solar activity, which at 694W/m2 was the second lowest this month. During the late evening the temperature dropped steadily but just after midnight the fall began to reduce as thin high cloud arrived around 01.00 with much thicker cloud rolling in from the east around 04.30. The strengthening breeze on an east-northeast breeze collected the moisture having tracked over the North Sea, thus the minimum of 14.6C logged at 05.53 was 3.4C above average.
Saturday brought a very different start to the new day as it revealed the low cloud on a cool east-northeasterly breeze that had slowly been increasing in strength, with no sunshine. The cloud will take a while to burn back eastwards before the sun is likely to return late in the morning. The ridge of high pressure has built a little further with a reading of 1028.1mb at 08.00, very close to the highest pressure all month, so at the moment little chance of any rain for the gardens over the weekend.
The anticyclone has edged a little closer to the UK being centred over the Outer Hebrides. It will be with us for another few days resulting in subtle changes in the maximum temperatures that will slowly decline with the breeze on Sunday likely to come from the east and fall a little lighter than that on Saturday as the ridge of high pressure extends southeastwards across the UK.