Category: News

Yesterday:
Maximum of 32.2C at 16.32 – up 1.4C on previous day and a new record high for June.

Not content with the hottest June day I have recorded on Monday last, yesterday the thermometer edged up to 32.0C mid-afternoon then an hour later crept a little higher with a maximum of 32.2C (90F) at 16.32. This breaks the record for the highest June day this station has recorded since 1984 when the station was installed.

The wind veered from the east late afternoon into the southeast and then early evening into the west.

This shift in wind direction could be seen clearly in the western sky an hour before sunset, as darker clouds at high altitude indicated the coming change in the weather. In the image below the effect of stronger winds on the cloud coming in from the west, at high altitude, can be clearly seen.

The cloud cover, having built overnight, stopped much heat escaping into the atmosphere that meant another very warm night with a minimum of 16.6C at 06.38, the warmest night since 25th August 2016 and 10C above the average for June.

This morning has total cloud cover with a few heavy spots of rain at 7am.

The second day of meteorological summer gave us just 2 minutes of strong sunshine although the thermometer rose to its highest at 12.52 as increasing cloud obscured the occasional weak sunshine during the afternoon. The maximum of 21.9C was 2C above the 33-year average.

There were a couple of light showers early evening and again just after midnight, only amounting to 0.7mm.

It was a warm night with a minimum 1.2C above average, much later than has been the case recently, of 11.0C just before 7am.

This morning has dawned with strong sunshine shortly after the sun rose. The difference over recent mornings is the much lower humidity with a reading of 80% instead of the mid to high 90’s at 08.00 as the wind has now veered from a southerly direction into the west.

Although there were only 2.4 hours of strong sunshine yesterday the southerly air still gave us a maximum of 20.9C (4.3C above average) early evening at 18.39. Cloud cover overnight meant a very mild night with a minimum of 11.2C (4.4C above average) in the early hours, just after 3am.

This morning dawned with fog that reduced visibility to 400mm, which slowly thinned after 7am as the sun got to work and by 08.00 had lifted to misty conditions and a temperature of 12.9C. There is only the slightest occasional breeze to help lift the humidity of 97%.

The barometric pressure has been gently rising over the past 48 hours and is now close to the highest value recorded this month at 1026.1mb. As it continues to rise we can anticipate that the fine weather should continue for a while.

After the washout day on Wednesday it was a relief to have a dry morning with 3.37 hours of strong sunshine and the UV level at 8.3, which was into the ‘Very High’ category. A small low pressure area, centred over the eastern side of the UK, started to move northwards bringing the edge of the cloud to us giving a cloudy afternoon and just after 5pm a light shower amounting to 0.5mm. The warmest part of the day was at lunchtime, before the cloud increased, with a maximum of 16.6C (average for May) at 13.09.

It was a warm, dry night as the cloud cover minimised the fall in temperature to a minimum of 8.8C (2C above the average for May) at 05.33.

This morning the cloud is thick with the occasional breaks allowing just a brief glimpse of sunshine.

N.B. New section on Climate Change under Weather Records since 1984 tab