Thursday gave us a very sunny morning but cloud from the associated depression in the eastern Atlantic drifted across around midday that thinned just before 14.00 allowing broken sunshine to return. However, the strong sunshine and southerly breeze, gusting to 19mph, the strongest all month, lifted the temperature to a maximum of 15.3C at 14.22 being 4.3C above the long-term average and was the warmest day all month. The cloud overnight that minimised loss of warmth into the atmosphere in contrast to the clear skies this past week, meant that the minimum of 8.4C made it the warmest night since 27th January and 5.8C above average. The maximum solar radiation of 515W/m2 was the highest all month.
The first couple of hours after dawn on Friday were mainly cloudy, however, just after 08.00 the cloud thinned and broke allowing a little sunshine to break through, the thermometer having risen to 9.3C by 08.00, the warmest start to day since 21st February.
A SSW event is a Sudden Stratospheric Warming. The Met Office are ‘very confident’ that such an event will occur next week. I mentioned yesterday that temperatures would tumble next week as a northeasterly wind will set in. A spokesperson said “The stratospheric polar vortex is now weakening rapidly. This is when the mid stratospheric wind is predicted to reverse from westerly to easterly. Sudden changes in the stratosphere can trigger a breakdown in the polar vortex, meaning cold air that is usually concentrated around the Arctic spills further south than usual.
The coming weekend will be very pleasant with temperatures beginning to drop on Monday then on Tuesday we begin to feel the colder, northeasterly wind with maximum temperatures dropping down to single figures, some 2 of 3C below average. There could be the return of night frosts, but not as severe as last week, so gardeners beware!
I was delighted to find a bee enjoying the sun and warmth yesterday when visiting a crocus in my garden.