After a cloudy morning on Monday the cloud began to thin after 13.00 with breaks of welcome sunshine as the afternoon progressed. This late improvement was shown by the maximum temperature of 12.6C being the lowest for a week, but still 1.9C above the long-term average, and logged late in the afternoon at 17.01. The UV level usually maxes around midday, say 12.30 until next week after the hour changes, so a late peak of 2.7 at 13.47 was not surprising and back to the ‘Low’ category.
During the evening under clear skies, the warmth quickly dissipated into the atmosphere to produce a minimum of 3.3C that was reached at 22.00 with it hovering around that figure until just after 01.00. After this time, tracing back time on the cloud radar, showed light variable cloud descending from the northwest that then thickened and limited visibility to 500m after dawn. By 07.00 there was evidence of the sun having risen so by 07.30 the bulk of the moisture had melted away to leave misty conditions.
Tuesday saw welcome, strong sunshine after 07.30, that had lifted the thermometer to 6.9C by 08.00. However, sadly, the next couple hours will be the best part of the day as the radar shows an area of variable cloud bearing down on our region, just to the north of Swindon at 08.20, from the northwest with the outside chance of light precipitation. The cloud is associated with two weather fronts, a warm front followed quickly by a cold front, that will be over our area around midday, which will see the wind back into the northwest for much of the day.
I wonder if March 2024 will be the driest I have recorded since this station was set up in 1984? The total rainfall to date is just 5.2mm. Analysing my records I see that the driest March was in 2011 with just 12.7mm followed then by the second driest with 15.6mm in 1997. The anticyclone has thrown a ridge of high pressure over the UK that will minimise any precipitation today and is likely to mean the next few days will be dry.
Up to and including yesterday, there was a loss of equivalent rainfall through evaporation from ground sources and plant life, a total of 35.7mm, so to date there is a deficit of 30mm for this month.