Category: Commentary

Wednesday was a lovely early autumn day with 5.57 hours of strong sunshine and no rain.

The maximum of 18.1C was just below the average for September with a minimum of 10.0C just above.

Hazy sunshine greeted the new day.

Tuesday was plagued by frequent bands of light rain and drizzle from a wide and slow moving weather band. The rainfall total of 1.1mm was modest but it meant a largely wet day. Late afternoon there were a couple of breaks in the thinning cloud that meant the day finished on a brighter note with 41 minutes of strong sunshine. The maximum of 18.6C was average for September.

Early evening the cloud broke up and we enjoyed a clear sky with a bright, full moon. At this time the high humidity experienced all day, around 93%, dropped into the lower 80’s as the wind veered from the south into the west just after 7pm.

The temperature dropped away until 02.05, with a minimum of 10.6C, when some transitory cloud meant that the temperature lifted a couple of degrees. This minimum was 1C above the 33-year average for September.

Dawn arrived with a cloud sheet that started to break up after 7am with strong sunshine bringing alive the sunshine recorder just after 8 am.

The two consecutive days of sunday and monday gave us such contrasting weather. Yesterday was a very warm and humid day thanks to the gentle southerly air movement

Monday:
Maximum of 22.0C up 8C on sunday being 3.3C above the September average
Sunshine of 1.31 hours contrasts with a sunless sunday
Rainfall of 0.6mm so little compared with the 7.1mm on sunday
Wind with a maximum of 16mph much less breezy than the peak of 20mph on sunday evening
Minimum of 15.2C up 3C and a considerable 6C above the 33-year average.

This morning is dull and grey with little wind. A light rain shower occurred just after 08.15.

The difference between saturday and sunday is significant:

Maximum: down from 20.4C to 14.2C
Wind: maximum gust up from 11mph to 20mph
Sun: down for 9.07 hours to Zero
Rainfall: rising from a dry day to 7.1mm

The warm front that brought almost twenty-four hours of light rain and drizzle started at 8am yesterday. There was a slightly drier period early evening and again between 1am and 3am. The total rainfall was 7.1mm.

The thermometer hovered around 14C all day but started to rise late evening adding 2C to the maximum by day resulting in a temperature of 16.1C at 08.00.

This morning dawned with hill fog that gave visibility dropping down from 2,200m. at 06.30 to 400m at 08.00.

Saturday was another lovely day, similar to friday, with 9.1 hours of strong sunshine and the maximum of 20.4C, almost 2C above the September average

Combined with little wind from a variable direction and no showers, it was the last of the very warm, dry days for a while.

The lowest temperature of 10.2C was reached at 02.06 this morning as the leading edge of the approaching weather front began to encroach from the west. As a result the temperature began to creep upwards, reaching 12.3C at 08.00

There was a little brightness after dawn but this soon disappeared as the cloud rapidly thickened. The first raindrops from the extensive weather front began to fall at 08.00.