ASCENSION:

The run of dry weather thus far in 2005 continues. Up to date we have only measured 5.2 mm of rain. We have to look back to 1993 to find an equally extended spell of dry weather at the start of the year.  To go with the dry spell we have had a lot of blue sky, sunshine and high temperatures. On the down side; distant storms have raised a big swell and several occasions recently the waves sweeping into Clarence Bay have been impressively large.

ST. HELENA:

Nice and bright for much of the time. In the cloudier interludes however there were quite a few showers as well, but nowhere near as wet as the previous week. The wind was a little lighter than it has been as well.

UK:                                              

Last week saw a huge change around in the weather over the British Isles.  A cold and wintry Northwest wind died away over the weekend, then, by Tuesday, very mild, moist air from the Atlantic was spreading steadily Northeastwards across the country. The extremes of temperature bear witness to the magnitude of this change. Last Monday morning a bitterly cold – 5 Celsius was recorded at West Freugh, (Dumfries & Galloway), but by Saturday daytime temperatures at Trawscoed in West Wales had soared to 21 Celsius. It wasn’t all good news though. At the boundary between the cold and the mild weather was an active frontal system, and this brought 50.6 mm of rain in 24 hours to Lusa on the Isle of Skye. The sunniest spot turned out to be Jersey in the Channel Islands where the weekend weather was particularly fine, 11.3 hours of sunshine being recorded on Saturday 19^th, and another 11.2 hours on Sunday. All very fitting seeing that 21^st March is officially reckoned to be the first day of spring.

FALKLANDS:

 Crown Copyright 2005

Issued by Pete Warr at  211430 Z   Met Office Ascension Tel 00247 3317 Met.office@atlantis.co.ac

For much of the last week a trailing frontal system remained slow moving quite close to the islands. It wasn’t active all of the time, but it made a large contribution to the week’s 17.3 mm of rainfall. For much of the time the wind was from an easterly quarter as well. This often brings with it rather cloudy conditions and this was the case last week.  Temperature levels were less than exciting as well, 11.5 Celsius at best during the day, and a cool 3 Celsius was the lowest night-time minimum.