Monday was another day best forgotten as regards the weather being dark, gloomy and dull all day. The brisk wind from the northwest, a cool direction, meant the peak temperature of 9.0C that occurred early in the afternoon at 13.04, was 1.6C below my 40-year average maximum.
Overnight revealed a distinct change in our weather for the next few days as an anticyclone over Iberia and a depression to the west of Ireland have started to channel up milder air from west of North Africa and around Madeira that at 08.00 had an air temperature of 15C. The diurnal image of temperatures, the difference between day and night, was minimal, just 2.9C.
The minimum of 6.1C was 3.6C above my 40-year average and occurred at 04.20 early Tuesday. It was just before midnight that the wind direction changed from northwest to southwest. Just after 04.20 the evidence of the major change was evident as the thermometer began to rise again to reach 9.1C at 08.00. The air circulating clockwise around the anticyclone and anticlockwise around the depression brought the milder air that will see maxima well above average for a few days.
Tuesday dawned with steady, modest rain that had triggered the automatic rain gauge at 02.30 and that amounted to 8.3mm by 08.00. The additional precipitation took the monthly rainfall total to 31.1mm when the 40-year average is 61.4mm.
