THIS weekend and beyond promises weather in total contrast to that of last weekend.
We are now influenced by Atlantic type weather and hence rain and gales.
Today will be a day of showers which could well merge into a longer spell of rain and some sunny spells in between. Later in the day it should become drier with some longer spells of sunshine to end with and temperatures at best around 14-16c.
Overnight temperatures will dip away to say 4-6c and tomorrow will start on a dry note with spells of sunshine before more rain moves in off the Atlantic during the afternoon. It will be windy throughout with gusts of say 20-30mph. The unsettled and cool regime will continue into next week.
Last weekend saw the second bank holiday of 2013 and I think you will agree that we got lucky indeed.
Saturday started with that early rain, but the sun was out by midday and stayed there all weekend.
In calmer winds the mercury pushed 21.8c on Sunday and higher still at 22.3c on Monday (over the 70F mark at last). The early May Bank Holiday was invented in 1978 and it is extremely rare to see weather like last week. It was, in fact, the second warmest with only 1999 warmer at 23c. However, things soon returned to normal and as I type this, the wind is gusting outside. By Thursday temperatures were well down on Mondays values at only 14C at midday, dropping away to 9C in the rain by 6pm.
Wind speed have been high for May with 54mph recorded at Little Rissington.The highest of the day was 77mph at Mumbles (Swansea).
May 2011 was a windy month with gales on the 2nd and again on the 22nd and 23rd with a gust of 111mph at Aonach Moor.