The lighter northerly breeze on Wednesday combined with many hours of sunshine lifted the temperature to 18.0C being 0.9C above the average. The day was dry under the high pressure and the UV level rose to 6.8, which is at the top end of ‘High’.
The anticyclone now stretches from mid-Atlantic to Scandinavia and firmly settled over southern England so Thursday will be another settled day with more sunshine, but probably less than on Wednesday as cloud is forecast to drift across the area in the afternoon.
The overnight minimum of 7.6C, which was logged at 05.12 early Thursday, was 0.8C above average. By 08.00 the sun had been shining strongly for a couple of hours and had lifted the temperature to 15.8C making it the warmest start to a day at that time since 28th October.
The drier weather combined with sunshine and a warmer night has resulted in the soil temperature at a depth of 5cm rise to 13.8C at 08.00, the highest at that time of day since 14th September. This has also given a humidity at 08.00 of 77%, the second lowest this month.