Initially the advance weather from Storm Darragh saw the thermometer steady around 7C for much of the daylight hours on Friday but began to climb in the evening reaching a maximum of 12.4C at 23.45 being 4.3C above the average.The temperature then began to fall as a result of the wind veering from southwest into the west and then north-northwest dropping the temperature to a low of 6.4C at 08.00 Saturday. The wind strength was rising all the time and peaked at 41mph at 03.48.
N.B. My weather station is in the lee of higher parts of Marlborough when the wind is from a southwest quarter, although the anemometer is well above ridge height on my bungalow. There have been sporadic brief showers amounting onto 2.7mm. The wind chill at 08.00 meant it felt at least 2C colder outside than indicated on the thermometer.
During the evening the barometric pressure was dropping 3mb every hour as the depression closed in on our area. The pressure reading at 08.00 Saturday was 992.2mb, which was down a significant 34mb since the peak on Wednesday.
The start to Saturday revealed thick, low cloud and sporadic rain again as the wind strength had begun to fall slightly, but was still very strong.
The centre of Storm Darragh is crossing the country and will be over the east coast by midday when conditions will very slowly moderate but still strong wind gusts.
