With wall to wall sunshine yesterday it is not surprising to find that the maximum temperature eased upwards a little, from the previous day, to 26.3C at 16.29, which is 10C above the average for May. I recorded 15.84 hours of strong sunshine, the greatest number of hours since this equipment was installed in April 2014.
It is interesting to note that although we had continuous sunshine the peak solar radiation was the lowest for 8 days due to air pollution.
The temperature slowly ebbed away overnight to a minimum of 14.9C at 03.07, making it the warmest night this month and the warmest night since 10th September 2016.
All changed after this time as cloud from approaching thunderstorms stopped the temperature decline with thunder heard at 04.25 and very heavy rain starting at 04.40 amounting to 5.9mm. At this time there was an eery orange / yellow light as the thunder clouds started to obscure the sky just as the strong light from the sun began to emerge. The thunder continued until around 05.30.
At the time readings are taken, that is 08.00, the thick cloud was breaking and the sun beginning to break through.
