Guernsey Weather Fox

Thursday

Weather

The windiest day of this week, this time with a strong SW’ly through the majority of the day, possibly even strong force 7 at times. Unlike the previous days, we won't see a prolonged period of rain, but it's just the odd short sharp shower, mainly in the afternoon. They are unlikely to ever last longer than five minutes at a time, but will possibly have some hail and thunder thrown in. In between the showers there will be much longer dry spells, but the sunshine will be limited and it certainly won't feel warm.

Surf and Surf

Along with the strongest wind we will also have the largest waves. Best of all for windsurfers and kite surfers, but not bad either for wave surfing if you are at the more expert end of the spectrum. The cleanest waves being during the first half of the morning when the wind will be back slightly towards the south, and the messiest waves in the evening when it will be veered slightly towards the west The tides will be pretty small with a high of about 7.2 m at midday.

Friday

Weather

There is the slim chance of a shower at some point in the day, but it looks more likely to stay dry and it should be a bit sunnier than on Thursday. Certainly an improvement in every aspect; if we do catch a shower then it would be much lighter than on Thursday, the winds will have dropped right down to just force 3-4 and the temperature should climb 2-3°C higher, peeking out about 13°C.

Surf and Tide

Another day with plentiful waves, probably around 4 to 6 feet but a little bit choppy in the cross-shore WSW’ly. The tidal range pretty teeny again, with a lunchtime high of just 6.9m.

The Weekend

The trends through the weekend will be uphill with respect to temperature but downhill with respect to weather. Saturday, dry with a mixture of cloudy and sunny spells. The breeze just a moderate WNW'’ly, meaning that town on the south coast will be the warmest areas, probably peeking at 14°C. Sunday will see the arrival of more muggy and humid air from the SSE, keeping the skies cloudy and misty or hazy, with occasional showers that will probably turn heavy and possibly thundering during the afternoon. That said, the top temperature will probably be a degree higher. One redeeming feature for Sunday could be the surf, which is currently expected to be 1-3 feet and clean, so much more welcoming for those beginners and intermediate who have had to sit out the bigger stuff. (The sea temperature is 12° and rising moment).

Next Week

In the bigger picture, what's will happen is that high pressure will build over Ireland on Monday, giving us a NNW’ly wind on Monday. Then the high pressure system will wander eastwards, putting the Channel Islands in an E’ly flow through the rest of the week. It’s far from certain as to whether we will stay dry all week or perhaps see a few episodes of thundery showers wandering up from France. What’s for sure is that temperatures will be on the warm side of normal and we should see a good deal of sunshine. Even if we do catch a thundery shower or two, it's going to feel a lot more settled than the weather of the previous week.