Friday increasingly came under the influence of the depression moving up from the Bay of Biscay to central France throwing large areas of cloud across the UK. Intermittent light drizzle was observed around midday with more moisture later in the afternoon with light rain beginning at 18.15. The thermometer struggled to reach the dizzying heights of 4.6C in the morning at 11.18 being a significant 3.6C below the February average. Mixed with the light rain in the afternoon, around 16.00, were small snow flakes that eventually produced a daily total of 2.5mm of precipitation.
The strong winds from the northeast, combined with the low temperatures and humidity produced a significant wind chill that well into the evening meant it felt at least 2C cooler outside than that indicated on the thermometer, in fact it felt below zero outside.
Saturday struggled to come alive under very low, thick cloud that limited visibility to 500m masking the Marlborough Downs and Savernake Forest with the humidity reading 95% at 08.00, the highest at that time all week. Today the winds are much lighter, rarely getting into double figures, but wind chill is still a factor making it feel at least 1C cooler outside than indicated on the thermometer.
During Friday there was a considerable pressure differential as the depression overcame the anticyclone that resulted in the winds gusting strongly to 30 mph on one occasion. The barometric pressure has fallen to its lowest since the end of January with a reading of 1016.2mb, a fall of almost 28mb since Thursday, that will result in lower wind speeds today.
The nuisance depression will dominate our weather for today but from Sunday the large area of high pressure to the east will reassert itself and the the wind likely continue from the north east, however, unfortunately it will drag in cloud and moist air as it travels over the cold North Sea resulting in more dull days and depressed temperatures.