Max (Celsius)

Min (Celsius)

Rainfall (mm)

AIRHEAD

31.6

25.2

Trace

TRAVELLERS

33.4

22.5

Trace

RESIDENCY

28.3

21.0

0.1

GEORGETOWN

33.2

24.4

0.0

ST. HELENA

27.0

16.1

10.4

FALKLANDS

20.3

4.2

4.3

UK (Brize Norton)

9.5

-4.3

Trace

UK

High pressure has dominated the UK this week giving mainly clear and dry conditions and cold overnight temperatures with a frost for most parts.  An overnight low of -18.6C in Braemar on the 3rd.

Falklands

Strong southwesterly winds at first with occasional rain and showers but these easing through the week.  The winds turned northwesterly later with temperatures warming by the weekend to reach just over 20C.

Ascension

A dry and sunny week with just a few isolated showers inland, mainly over Green mountain.

St. Helena

Sunny spells and scattered showers with light southeasterly winds. Temperatures were particularly warm on Friday.

Cloud spotting: An important part of a meteorologist’s life.   Every hour we record the amount, type and height of any clouds as part of our weather report.  Did you know there is even a Cloud Appreciations Society!  Perhaps these folks are talking things a little too far but clouds can be quite interesting (honestly!) 

The main type of cloud we see on Ascension are the ‘cumulus’ type, meaning ‘heap’ in Latin and look like fluffy cotton wool.  These are usually quite small but sometimes will grow deeper giving showers and occasionally grow into a ‘cumulonimbus’ cloud which can grown as tall as 50,000 feet and give a very heavy shower and even thunder (although this is rare here).  The different types of cloud are all numbered from 1 to 9 with 9 being the cumulonimbus.  This is probably where the phrase “being on cloud nine” comes from as it is the tallest cloud with the tops reaching the highest.   Hindus and Buddhists believe cumulus clouds are the spiritual cousins of elephants and use the word ‘Megha’, meaning cloud, to refer to them in prayer.

Cumulonimbus clouds are dangerous for aircraft, so pilots will try to avoid them due to severe turbulence, icing of the wings, hail and lightning damage.  In 1959, Lieutenant-Colonel William Rankin, a US Air Force pilot, became the only man to have survived falling through one of these clouds as he ejected from his plane as it caught fire.  He spent a good half and hour trapped in the cloud due to the updraughts and downdroughts and being pelted with hail.  But he survived, albeit with bruising, cuts and frostbite!