The first change in our weather pattern of late saw a gloomy Sunday morning but after midday the cloud began to thin and some brakes appeared with brief glimpses of small patches of blue sky, what a treat after the previous dull and gloomy days. As a result the thermometer rose to a maximum of 13.6C at 14.29 being 3.3C above my 40-year average and the warmest day since the 31st October. There was sufficient UV light to trigger the sensor, the first after three successive non-show days.
Further significant changes occurred in the early hours of Monday as a new high-pressure system developed over the UK. This resulted in the wind direction swinging into the west just before 02.00 then north an hour later. At 02.30 there was a brief rain shower amounting to 0.2mm and the strongest gust of wind all month occurred precisely at 02.34, peaking at 14mph. This activity with wind direction and brief rain was associated with a cold front moving down from the north. The temperature then began to slowly fall away reaching a minimum of 8.2C at 07.40, being 4.2C above my long-term average.
It was a glorious start to Monday as the cloud was much thinner and there was a very bright start to the new day, gone the nine days of gloom. The weather front is slowly moving southwards so the cloud should begin to thin with hopefully some welcome sunshine as the day progresses.
A new high pressure system has formed over the UK with its centre over Ireland and is likely to hang around for much of the week. The barometric pressure reading at 08.00 was 1035.8mb, the highest since the 1st February. The clearer skies will mean a much colder night ahead.
