The drizzle and light rain, the first spots of rain triggered the automatic rain gauge at 08.45, continued intermittently throughout the daylight hours on Saturday with a total precipitation of 3.3mm that took the monthly total to 25.5mm when the long-term average is 68.0mm, so a relatively dry first half for February. The continuous low cloud meant little rise in temperature all day just 1.7C, with a maximum of 5.8C occurring at 15.04, being 3.5C below average. The temperature fell away very slowly overnight with a slight increase after 01.00 as the cloud began to thin dropping to a minimum of 0.7C at 07.35 easy Sunday, which was 1.2C below average. The dull and gloomy conditions triggered the UV light sensor, briefly, with a reading of 0.6 just after 14.00.
Sunday revealed a brighter start to a new day with the cloud much higher and thinner allowing some brightness after sunrise but no sunshine. The wind has backed a few degrees and is now coming from the east or east-southeast so another mainly cool and cloudy day ahead.
The first half of February has, as we know, been cool. Looking at the statistics I find that only three days have produced a maximum above average, namely the 3rd to the 5th. The fifteen overnight minima produced just four nights that were above the long-term average, the early hours of the 2nd also the 5th and most recently the 13th and 14th, but only just.
The barometric pressure chart for the past twenty-four hours has shown a bit of a roller coaster as it has risen then fallen twice and then ended up today at 08.00 exactly as it was on Saturday at that time with a reading of 1019.0mb. The battle between the anticyclone and depression continued. The very large area of low pressure mid-Atlantic threw the cloud and rain over the UK yesterday and is not making much movement against the high pressure that dominated all last week.