Author: Eric Gilbert

Thursday was another day that started calm, dry and dull but rain arrived in the mid-afternoon with the wind increasing producing strong gusts at 17.40 up to 25mph. The daily rainfall amounted to 8.5mm that took the monthly total to 21.3mm against the average for December of 94.0mm. The temperature at 08.00 was 12.8C but dropped away during daylight hours and after the rain band clear around 19.00 the rain stopped, the wind abated and the temperature began to fall away to reach a minimum of 3.4C at 07.51 early Friday. The maximum was 4.7C above average whereas the minimum was just 0.9C above average.

The barometric pressure has been rising overnight producing a short lived ridge of high pressure for the daylight hours of Friday. However, Storm Darragh is closing in. The centre of the depression at midnight was just west of Ireland but over the next twenty-four hours it will move eastwards across central England. Weather warnings have gone out for extreme wind gusts and more heavy rain.

After a very calm day on Wednesday when the maximum gust was 8mph it changed overnight. A weather front passed our way during darkness that saw the wind rise to a high gust of 23mph at 00.15 early Thursday and intermittent heavy rain that started at 18.15 and continued through the night that amounted to 9.1mm. The temperature rose to a high of 9.2C at 14.05 during daylight hours on Wednesday but then began a steady climb to peak at 12.9C at 06.25 early Thursday being a significant 4.9C above the long-term average, thus the night minimum was higher than the day time peak. The wind during this period backed from the southwest to south overnight. Not surprisingly, no UV light triggered the sensor.

Thursday again struggled to wake up under thick, low cloud and drizzle as the depression is close to Scotland feeding in the moist, warm air. The rain radar shows variable areas of low cloud producing drizzle during the morning. A further weather front will cross during the late afternoon that will see the wind gust strongly again with more heavy rain. The barometric pressure has dropped another 17mb with a reading of 1009.8mb at 08.00, the lowest pressure reading since 27th November.

Update: Store Darragh has just been named and will impact our area on Friday and into Sunday with strong winds and heavy rain.

The light airstream from the east and minimal sunshine meant a cool day on Tuesday that saw both the maximum of 7.2C logged at 13.32 and the minimum of 0.2C logged at 00.15 early Wednesday were below my long-term average with -0.8C and -2.2C respectively. Thankfully it was a very calm day with the greatest air movement logged at just 7mph, couldn’t call it a gust of wind.

Wednesday began with total cloud cover with the air movement coming from the southwest but again calm. Overnight the change of wind direction resulted on the thermometer rising after the low at 00.15 to reach 4.7C at 08.00.

A deep depression has formed in the eastern Atlantic and will proceed northeastwards, heading between Scotland and Iceland, thus influence our weather during the coming evening with the wind strengthening considerably and a few hours of steady rain overnight. Its central pressure was 975mb at midnight and forecast to top to 970mb by midday, a very low pressure.The barometric pressure read 1026.4mb at 08.00, the highest all month, but will soon begin to drop as the depression approaches.

Monday was the last of the mild days that saw the thermometer rise to a maximum of 9.1C at 12.45 before the cold front arrived from the north. The thermometer hovered around 6C for most of the evening but then after 04.15 early Tuesday the temperature began to drop steadily to reach 2.1C at 08.00 Tuesday and was still falling. Therefore the high was 1.0C above average and the low 0.3C below average. A little precipitation amounted to 0.4mm.

Tuesday began bright under variable cloud. The barometric pressure has been rising over the past twenty-four hours with a reading of 1023.1mb at 08.00, up 11mb since Monday at that time, so a predominantly dry and calm day ahead. The wind direction will be predominantly from the east or east-southeast today and light.

The forecast charts indicate that the cool, calm weather will continue into Wednesday but a deep depression heading in from the Atlantic will bring milder weather but stormy conditions for Thursday.

Sunday brought us a few showers in the morning and again in the afternoon amounting to 3.3mm. It was a very mild day that saw the thermometer reach 13.9C at 13.17 before falling back a couple of degrees in the late afternoon. Overnight the thermometer dropped away to a minimum of 7.2C logged at 08.00 being 4.8C above average

Monday brought us a bright start to the day but cloud will build late morning as another weather front passes our way.

November 2024 Review

A high-pressure system dominated the first few days of the new month that built and extended from Ireland to Russia and down south as far as North Africa.

The weather from the 1st to the 9th was dull, dreary and drab as large areas of low cloud became trapped under the dome of high pressure. This period was also noted for the lack of breeze that meant the air became stagnant with little movement and at times many hours of calm.

The other feature was the minimal diurnal range of temperatures, the difference between day and night extremes. Both on the 3rd and 4th there was just 2C difference between the two, such as 11.6C and 9.4C on the 3rd. However, the diurnal range at the end of this depressing period was just 0.5C between 7.2C on the 8th and the minimum next morning of 6.7C.

At these times the thick cloud acted as a duvet limiting any warmth escaping into the atmosphere. There were four days that were notable that no UV light triggered the UV sensor, 3rd, 7th, 8th and 9th respectively, the first occasion that this has occurred since 30th January 2024.

A new high-pressure system arrived on the 10th with unusually high pressure with a peak of 1039.1mb logged on the 11th, the highest since 11th January. This anticyclone meant that the air circulating clockwise, as it does, produced a change in wind direction, coming principally from the north, a much cooler direction.

The blocking high also kept weather fronts from making progress towards the UK so a dry, mild period continued until the 16th. The air was much clearer with some weak UV light triggering the sensor.

The 18th into the 19th produced an interesting twenty-four hours or more. The 18th started with a temperature of 5.2C and hovered around 8C for most of the daylight hours then during the evening an area of warm air arrived that took the maximum to 11.2C at 00.15, early on the 19th, when it is usual in November for the temperature to drop. However, a cold front arrived shortly afterwards, followed by a stream of Arctic air, that saw the temperature begin to fall steadily to a reading of 2.1C at 08.00. This period also produced a total of 13.3mm of rainfall, the wettest since 18th October. The thermometer continued to drop as the morning of the 19th progressed with occasional snowflakes observed at 09.30. By 10.45 the thermometer read 1.3C and snow began to fall heavily, shortly afterwards it began to settle on grass areas. This significant change in our weather was due to a very wide weather front associated with a small depression that ran across southern England that saw the barometric pressure drop to a low of 995.8mb, the lowest pressure since 9th October.

By the 22nd it was all change again as Storm Bert began to influence our weather, centred off the coast of Northen Ireland, that saw the thermometer rise 9C overnight of the 23rd, when temperatures normally fall away in autumn. This was due to a warm front crossing our area also bringing rain and a strengthening wind from the southwest.

Another contrast was logged on the 23rd/24th. Temperatures usually drop away overnight, however, the temperature rose almost continuously from 8.1C at 08.00 on the 23rd to 16.9C at the time on the 24th. No evaporation was logged over the twenty-four hours due to the almost continuous rain that amounted to 27.2mm.

The mean temperature for November was almost exactly average, however, that hides the fact that the daytime mean was 0.3C below and the mean nighttime was 0.5C above.

The monthly precipitation total, that included the snow, was 97.5mm being 106% of my 40-year average or plus 5.8mm. The precipitation for the eleven months from January to November totalled 1069.4mm compared to my 40-year average of 768mm being 139% or plus 301mm.

Autumn 2024.
The average temperature was just 0.1C above the 40-year average. Rainfall of 421mm was 171% of my 40-year average or plus 175.