The easterly breeze persisted all day on Sunday that with only brief glimpses of sunshine in the afternoon limited any rise in temperature. The maximum of 4.4C, logged at 15.10, was 3.9C below the long-term average but there was also a wind chill that meant outside it felt at least 1C colder than that indicated on a thermometer. Although the cloud cover continued overnight the temperature very slowly dropped to freezing (-0.1C) at 21.44 and stayed below freezing overnight with a minimum of -0.9C at 04.41 early Monday being 2.8C below average.
There were signs of a change in our weather on Sunday from the UV readings. The sun is slowly getting stronger, when we see it, with the thinner cloud from around mid-day resulted in a UV reading for more hours, from 11.00 to 16.00, peaking at a value of 0.7 at 15.12. This is still in the ‘low’ category but it is only mid-February.
Monday began with high cloud that allowed weak sunshine to filter through giving a brighter start to the new day, very welcome after a week of gloomy days. The tussle between the high and low pressure systems continues with little variation in barometric pressure, up just 2mb since Sunday, with a reading of 1020.9mb at 08.00. The wind will continue from the east or east-southeast day, that wont do much to raise the temperature of the pool of cool air still over the UK.
The synoptic charts show that changes are afoot with the extensive low pressure system in mid-Atlantic edging closer that will see a little more wind to stir up the atmosphere, dispersing the recent thick, low cloud, with a change in wind direction from Tuesday. As a result we will eventually see temperatures rise towards mid-week.
The thermometer eventually rose above freezing at 09.02.