The high pressure began to settle over the UK on Tuesday bringing, quiet, calm conditions, however, much cloud was trapped below it. With just brighter periods in the morning and no sustained sunshine the thermometer slowly crept to a maximum of 14.4C late in the morning, not afternoon as usual, at 11.55, this was down 0.5C on the Monday peak. There were a few spots of rain mid-morning from a small passing shower, but not measurable, classed as a ‘trace’. The peak was 0.5C below my 40-year average. After midday cloud built up and thus no increase in the warmth, but it was dry. The significant feature was the lack of wind, many hours of calm with a maximum movement of air at just 8mph, couldn’t call it a gust.
The cloud cover was sustained overnight therefore limited loss of warmth into the atmosphere under the cloud ‘duvet’, a drop of just 4C to a minimum of 10.4C at 07.07 early Wednesday, being again above average at +3.0C.
Wednesday revealed another cloudy start to the new day, the thermometer registering a temperature of 10.5C at 08.00.
The high pressure is acting as a dome trapping the warm, most air under it from the airmass having traveled across many miles of ocean gathering moisture on its journey to us.
