Category: Commentary

After the cool, damp and cloudy day on monday, tuesday gave us a dry and sunny day with 3.7 hours of strong sunshine, which boosted the thermometer to a maximum of 19.6C. This was 1C above the late September average and 4C higher than the peak on monday.

No rain fell so the total this month stands at 57.9mm, which is 3.8mm below the September average.

The ridge of high pressure meant another calm day with a maximum gust of just 10mph.

A mild night followed with the thermometer not dropping below 12.9C.

This morning the Marlborough Downs are draped in low could restricting visibility to 1,000m, an improvement on the 200m early yesterday.

Monday was a depressing day as the weather front was static along the spine of the country due to the blocking high pressure to the east. As a result the low cloud, with pulses of light rain and frequent drizzle, persisted all day.

Not surprisingly, no sunshine was recorded, only the second day this month. The UV level struggled to reach the ‘Low’ level.

The memorable feature was the almost non existence of wind. For long periods the anemometer did not move with the strongest gust of just 8 mph, being the calmest day since 26th January.

Total precipitation was minimal at 0.8mm

The maximum was 3C below the average, peaking at 15.7C, but in contrast the minimum of 12.6C was 3.3C above the average due the the thick cloud cover for most of the night.

This morning we woke to thick fog that initially brought visibility down to 200m but an hour after dawn a slight breeze from the south east started to move the fog banks around that lifted visibly to 800m.

The south-easterly winds gave us a warm sunday with the thermometer rising above the average for the second day with a maximum of 19.9C, being 1.2C above the 33-year average.

Sunshine was much reduced over the previous day but we enjoyed a welcome 2.7 hours.The UV level of ‘Moderate’ was exactly same as the two previous days.

Late afternoon the initial cloud from an advancing weather front was evident with rain beginning to fall just before 1am. The heaviest rainfall occurred just over an hour later followed by light rain and drizzle.

It was a very mild night with a minimum of 14.0C, being 4.7C above the September average.

At 08.00 the rainfall amounted to 8.7mm bringing the total for September to 57.1mm, which is 93% of the September average, this made it the wettest day since 20th August.

This morning is dull and wet with very low cloud sitting across the tops of the Marlboorugh Downs and frequent showers of drizzle.

Saturday was a glorious day with 7.36 hours of strong sunshine that boosted the temperature to a maximum of 19.1C. It was the first day with a maximum above the average since 4th September being +0.4C.

It was only the fifth dry this month.

We have to thank the southerly breeze, resulting from a temporary ridge of high pressure, for this improvement.

A mild night followed with the minimum of 9.3C, exactly equal to the September average.

There was mist at dawn with fog in the River Kennet valley that was readily dispersed as the sunshine strengthened.

Friday
Maximum: 17.4C, up 2.3C on Thursday and just 1.3C below average
UV: returned to ‘Moderate’ level after ‘Low’ on Thursday
Sunshine: 7 hours, up 5 hours on Thursday
Rainfall: 0.2mm, down from 2.5mm the previous day
Minimum: 13.3C, up 11C on Thursday and 4C above the average.
Soil at 5cm: returned to 12.7C after 6.9C on Thursday