Wet and windy this morning – a bit better later in the day
It was a wet and windy morning over the Peak District today with SSE gales in exposed parts, especially at higher levels. In Tideswell the wind got up to Force 7 with a maximum gust of 53 m.p.h.
Towards the end of the morning a sharply-defined cold front swept quickly east across the Peak District. This show up well on the following satellite image from the middle of the day. The shadow of the high cloud is clearly visible over southern England and the English Channel.
In Tideswell, the cold front went through at about 11:30 a.m. accompanied by a brief burst of torrential rain with a max rate of 80 mm/hr. There was a sharp fall in temperature as the front went through, followed by a more gradual fall. The first part of the afternoon was dry with a few short sunny intervals but later in the afternoon it became showery and the showers became increasingly heavy into the evening.
For the forseeable future (i.e. up to about a week ahead) it looks like we shall be stuck in a run of very unsettled weather with a succession of fronts and low pressure centres moving in from the Atlantic. These will bring spells of mild, wet and windy weather alternating with spells of colder, showery weather across the Peak District. Very changeable will sum it up very well. There’s no sign of anything particularly cold but it is possible that we may see a short spell of wintry precipitation above 250-300m during Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Beyond next week is very uncertain but there’s currently no sign of the changeable weather coming to an end and no sign of anything notably cold.