The 5.1 hours of strong sunshine on Tuesday boosted the thermometer even higher then Monday to a maximum of 26.3C at 15.40 being exactly 4C above the long-term average. The UV also climbed higher with a reading of 7.7, again at the ‘Very High’ level.
The warm and moist air from the ‘Spanish Plume’ of continental air, combined with much cloud meant a very warm night with a minimum of 16.7C, which was 5C above the long-term average and the warmest night since 22nd August 2016.
So often this period of hot, humid air ends with a bang and early this morning that is exactly what happened. The first rumbles of thunder disturbed me just after 02.30 and with the last detected about 04.30.
The huge storm that swept in from the south early yesterday evening veered to the east, as so often happens, without a drop of rain to record in Marlborough. The storm in the early hours of this morning did provide some rain, 4.6mm to be exact, but once again we missed the heaviest rainfall. The total rainfall for July now stands at 31.2mm, which is 52% of the long-term average.