The forecast change in our recent weather arrived on cue. Friday began sunny and very warm with the thermometer rising to a peak of 20.4C at 13.04, which was 5.7C above the average. Incidentally, all 13 days in October produced a maximum above average. During the afternoon the temperature edged downwards to around 17C but just after 17.00 the clouds had thickened and rain began to fall, very heavy at 17.15 and amounted to 8.3mm. This was as a result of a weather front passing over the area that brought the rain and strong gusts of wind up to 26mph. At the same time the wind abruptly veered from the south into the north that brought the cooler air with the thermometer dropping away to around 10C. Overnight, as the skies cleared, the cooler Arctic air was evident as the thermometer dropped further to 6.1C at its lowest at 07.20 on Saturday.
The sun began to shine after it had risen above the horizon on Saturday, heralding a cool day as the Arctic air streams down on a northerly breeze. The ground temperature at 08.00 a depth of 5cm saw a drop from 16.3C on Friday to 8.7C on Saturday at that time.
