Monday was the last of the days, until next week, when the maximum rose above the average for March with a peak of 12.8C at 13.37 being 2.1C above the long-term average. After around 13.00 the cloud, associated with the depression over France, built up producing misty conditions.
The first of the rain in March fell as a very light shower just after 09.00 on Monday but more registered on the automatic rain gauge between 02.00 and 04.00, that totalled 1.1mm, being the first precipitation this month.
The forecast cold front passed our way in the early hours of Tuesday crossing the south coast around 08.00. Behind it the temperature fell to a low of 4.3C at 06.37 being 1.6C above average, however, the arrival of the Arctic air, on a northeasterly breeze, produced a wind chill that meant outside at 08.00 it felt more like 3.1C rather than the air temperature of 4.6C.
The clearer air currently behind the cold front will likely produce some modest, short-lived sunshine, between variable cloud, but the temperature will be noticeably depressed compared to the unseasonal warmth of last week. However, there is another band of thicker cloud streaming south behind the front thus blocking out the early sunshine for much of the day.
Currently the air is streaming across the country from the north on a northeasterly breeze having originated around Greenland. It is being propelled towards us by a low pressure system over Scandinavia, with the air circulating anticlockwise, and a high pressure system over Iceland with its associated air mass rotating clockwise, so therefore squeezed between the two weather systems thus its direction and increased speed over recent days.