It's lovely in mid-Devon at the moment, with clear pale blue skies (8.6°C) but by the look of it, it won't stay that way for much longer. If you look at the animation on the 15 minute visible satellite images from the Met Office, the cloud edge of the low stratus that's currently across Wiltshire and approaching Dorset must be moving W'SW at around 15 knots at a guess, and will reach here in a couple of hours or so. Hopefully in that time insolation should have lifted the base a bit and fragmented it a bit - who am I kidding.

On Friday, 18 March 2016 09:40:45 UTC, xmetman wrote:
It's lovely in mid-Devon at the moment, with clear pale blue skies (8.6°C) but by the look of it, it won't stay that way for much longer. If you look at the animation on the 15 minute visible satellite images from the Met Office, the cloud edge of the low stratus that's currently across Wiltshire and approaching Dorset must be moving W'SW at around 15 knots at a guess, and will reach here in a couple of hours or so. Hopefully in that time insolation should have lifted the base a bit and fragmented it a bit - who am I kidding.

Of course according to the Met Office this is a warm front albeit weakening (see their 06 UTC analysis) but without the thickening layers of cirrostratus and altostratus ahead of it, more a boundary level feature. To be quite honest looking at the 09 UTC SYNOPs I can't see any real change in dewpoints across the whole country.

On Friday, 18 March 2016 09:40:45 UTC, xmetman wrote:
It's lovely in mid-Devon at the moment, with clear pale blue skies (8.6°C) but by the look of it, it won't stay that way for much longer. If you look at the animation on the 15 minute visible satellite images from the Met Office, the cloud edge of the low stratus that's currently across Wiltshire and approaching Dorset must be moving W'SW at around 15 knots at a guess, and will reach here in a couple of hours or so. Hopefully in that time insolation should have lifted the base a bit and fragmented it a bit - who am I kidding.
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Forecast to arrive here in SW Devon between 5 and 6 pm.
As you say Bruce, looks to be here a bit earlier than that, but Dartmoor can give us some shelter and break it up.

Len
Wembury SW Devon coast , 83 m asl

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On 18/03/2016 10:37, Len Wood wrote:
On Friday, 18 March 2016 09:40:45 UTC, xmetman wrote:
It's lovely in mid-Devon at the moment, with clear pale blue skies (8.6°C) but by the look of it, it won't stay that way for much longer. If you look at the animation on the 15 minute visible satellite images from the Met Office, the cloud edge of the low stratus that's currently across Wiltshire and approaching Dorset must be moving W'SW at around 15 knots at a guess, and will reach here in a couple of hours or so. Hopefully in that time insolation should have lifted the base a bit and fragmented it a bit - who am I kidding.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forecast to arrive here in SW Devon between 5 and 6 pm.
As you say Bruce, looks to be here a bit earlier than that, but Dartmoor can give us some shelter and break it up.

Len
Wembury SW Devon coast , 83 m asl

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Well it's west of Portland Bill now but very slow moving so I reckon you
might be okay till 2pm. Obviously here from the word go this morning.
Yesterday clear skies and sunshine from dawn till dusk. Doesn't take
much to completely alter the weather from these high pressures does it!
Dave, S.Essex

On Friday, 18 March 2016 10:47:10 UTC, Dave Cornwell wrote:
On 18/03/2016 10:37, Len Wood wrote:
On Friday, 18 March 2016 09:40:45 UTC, xmetman wrote:
It's lovely in mid-Devon at the moment, with clear pale blue skies (8.6°C) but by the look of it, it won't stay that way for much longer. If you look at the animation on the 15 minute visible satellite images from the Met Office, the cloud edge of the low stratus that's currently across Wiltshire and approaching Dorset must be moving W'SW at around 15 knots at a guess, and will reach here in a couple of hours or so. Hopefully in that time insolation should have lifted the base a bit and fragmented it a bit - who am I kidding.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forecast to arrive here in SW Devon between 5 and 6 pm.
As you say Bruce, looks to be here a bit earlier than that, but Dartmoor can give us some shelter and break it up.

Len
Wembury SW Devon coast , 83 m asl

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well it's west of Portland Bill now but very slow moving so I reckon you
might be okay till 2pm. Obviously here from the word go this morning.
Yesterday clear skies and sunshine from dawn till dusk. Doesn't take
much to completely alter the weather from these high pressures does it!
Dave, S.Essex

Dave

You're right about that! Just come back from a visit to Dorset and the stratus was covering the highest ground making it misty and cold, it was like stepping back into winter in comparison to yesterday and this morning.

Bruce.

On Friday, 18 March 2016 17:51:33 UTC, xmetman wrote:
On Friday, 18 March 2016 10:47:10 UTC, Dave Cornwell wrote:
On 18/03/2016 10:37, Len Wood wrote:
On Friday, 18 March 2016 09:40:45 UTC, xmetman wrote:
It's lovely in mid-Devon at the moment, with clear pale blue skies (8.6°C) but by the look of it, it won't stay that way for much longer. If you look at the animation on the 15 minute visible satellite images from the Met Office, the cloud edge of the low stratus that's currently across Wiltshire and approaching Dorset must be moving W'SW at around 15 knots at a guess, and will reach here in a couple of hours or so. Hopefully in that time insolation should have lifted the base a bit and fragmented it a bit - who am I kidding.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forecast to arrive here in SW Devon between 5 and 6 pm.
As you say Bruce, looks to be here a bit earlier than that, but Dartmoor can give us some shelter and break it up.

Len
Wembury SW Devon coast , 83 m asl

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well it's west of Portland Bill now but very slow moving so I reckon you
might be okay till 2pm. Obviously here from the word go this morning.
Yesterday clear skies and sunshine from dawn till dusk. Doesn't take
much to completely alter the weather from these high pressures does it!
Dave, S.Essex

Dave

You're right about that! Just come back from a visit to Dorset and the stratus was covering the highest ground making it misty and cold, it was like stepping back into winter in comparison to yesterday and this morning.

Bruce.
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Was a good cloud forecast by UKMO model.
Sun became a little hazy in the afternoon but did not cloud over until 6 pm..
Spot on as forecast for here in SW Devon.
Max 12° C in my garden.

Len
Wembury
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On 18/03/2016 19:31, Len Wood wrote:
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Was a good cloud forecast by UKMO model.
Sun became a little hazy in the afternoon but did not cloud over until 6 pm.
Spot on as forecast for here in SW Devon.
Max 12° C in my garden.

Len
Wembury
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The edge to that cloud was well broken here when it arrived and at about
1pm it went from hazy, unbroken sunshine to sunny intervals. By about
3pm the cloud cover became continuous and we lost the sunshine
completely - and it went rather gloomy and chilly.

Maximum of 11.8C then it dropped away to just 6C by 4pm.

Quite a shock after what has been a sunny week.

--
Nick Gardner
Otter Valley, Devon
20 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk