Category: Commentary

Thursday brought us another sunless day although there was a little brightness in the early afternoon.

The barometric pressure fell all day and rapidly early evening to a minimum of 994.9mb, the lowest for over a month as a deep depression travelled north-eastwards over eastern Wales.

The wind increased in strength, gusting to 32mph at 21.04, with increasing rainfall that amounted to 10.2mm making it the wettest day since 29th July. This brings the total for October to 22.4mm, still well below the October average of 86.4mm.

The thermometer rose above the average yesterday to a peak of 15.6C (+1C) and the minimum of 10.8C was 3.5C above the long-term average.

It is nearly a month since the wind came from a southeasterly direction, which veered into the west early this morning.

This morning the effects of the depression are still felt with gusty wind and intermittent rain falling from a thick, low cloud base.

Wednesday produced the coolest day this month when the thermometer struggled to reach 11.8C during daylight hours, almost 3C below the average. During the evening this lifted to 12.4C, still 2.2C down on the average.

It was a gloomy day with heavy cloud shrouding the tops of the Marlborough Downs producing thick mist with visibility falling in the afternoon as this thickened with visibility dropping to 400m as ‘hill fog’.

The wind was very light all day with the strongest gust registering just 11mph. Not surprisingly, the UV level at 0.6 was the lowest since 15th February.

Overnight, the thermometer stayed at 12.8C, the wind dropped out completely and the fog thickened with visibility falling to 200m.

However, just before 08.00 this morning the ‘hill fog’ began to move with visibility varying from 400m to 1100m.

There was just 1.1mm of precipitation in the past twenty-four hours, bringing the total for October to 12.2mm, being just 14% of the 33-year average for October.

Tuesday started well with 2.09 hours of strong sunshine but increasing cloud late morning meant the peak temperature of just 13.9C, was reached at 11.45. This made it the coolest day in October being 0.7C below the long-term average and the first below average maximum.

The first rain shower started just after 16.30 with the main intermittent rainfall arriving around 8pm, peaking around midnight. The daily rainfall amounted to 4.8mm, making this the wettest day this month.

Even with this wettest day the rainfall for October amounts to just 11.1mm whereas we have lost 17mm of equivalent moisture into the atmosphere through evaporation from ground sources and plant life.

This morning is dull and grey with thick, low cloud producing misty conditions. Notably the wind moved from a southerly direction into the north east around 03.00.

Fortunately for this area the gale force winds passed to the west of us. The maximum gust of 37mph was recorded late afternoon at 17.35 although since 9am the wind strength had been rising with several gusts in excess of 30mph.

The thermometer rose steadily Monday morning to a maximum of 18.8C, at 10.56, the warmest day since 26th September, but began to fall away as storm ‘Ophelia’ travelled further north and away from this region.

Thick, yellow coloured cloud enveloped the area for a couple of hours with the red sun occasionally seen through the dense cloud. At this time the cloud, containing dust from the Sahara and pollution from the fires over Iberia, were so dense that our large solar panel array shut down completely for two hours either side of midday. Just after 2pm the cloud cleared and we enjoyed 1.73 hours of strong sunshine.

Overnight, the clearing skies meant the thermometer fell away to a minimum of 9.6C at 08.00.

This morning has dawned with weak sunshine and very still conditions.

The temperature peaked at 17.4C on sunday, and slowly fell away late afternoon and evening until just after 21.15 when the thermometer started to rise again as the warm air brought to us as storm Ophelia approaches began to be felt. Within one hour the temperature had risen 1.4C from a low of 14.6C.

This morning the wind started to rise just after 04.00 with a peak of 18mph, equal to the maximum gust on sunday.

Monday has arrived with weak sunshine and the thermometer, having risen further to 16.4C at 08.00, indicates the warmest morning since 17th August.

To highlight the relative warmth, yesterday’s maximum was almost 3C above the 33-year average for October and the minimum was 6C above the October average.