Saturday 21st February
Friday’s weather could be summed up as sunshine and showers. After a dry, cool, cloudy morning the sunshine broke through occasionally during the afternoon that resulted in a maximum of 11.9C at 14.29. This peak made it the warmest day since 10th December, which was 3.6C above my long-term average. The temperature fell back a little during the late afternoon showers and early hours of Saturday morning resulting in a temperature of 9.2C at 08.00 on Saturday. The showers were sharp and resulted in a daily total of 3.2mm.
The new day on Saturday brought total cloud cover but initially slightly higher than the gloomy start to many days last week. We are now in a flow of Atlantic air, which is moist, but relatively warm. The barometric pressure reading of 1020.5mb at 08.00 was the highest reading since the end of December, thanks to the Azores high spreading northeastwards across France and into eastern Europe, edging across the UK.
The radar at 08.00 showed clumps of drizzle and rain over the West Country, heading our way for the afternoon. Meanwhile, the higher ground over the Marlborough Downs resulted in the misty conditions as the warm, weather front approached.
The Jet Stream has recently edged a little further north, having been stuck mainly across the centre of the country over recent weeks, driving rain bands towards the UK. The slight repositioning northwards puts the UK on the warmer side of the air masses to the south. At the moment the outlook well into next week is for the warm, moist air to bring us mainly cloudy days with intervals of sunshine that will result in temperatures by day and night being several degrees above the late February average. The wind will come from the southwest of west-southwesterly direction for many days next week.