Guernsey Weather Fox

Friday

Weather

Probably the coldest day of the week (max temp 5-6°C), but with sunny skies and light winds (force 3 NNE’ly) it will certainly be beautiful. Cold-air clarity at it’s finest. With gloves, hat and scarf in addition to a nice thick jacket, a walk around the coast paths (especially down south) will be visually spectacular. Overnight, the skies will gradually become mostly cloudy and eventually stop the temperature from plummeting any further. However, that will probably be well after sunset, so we will probably get right down to 1 or 2°C before things level off.

Surf and the Water

Flat surf. Best conditions for cold-water swimming will be along the west and south coast around the beginning and the end of the day. Low tide will be around 1:20pm and the high tides will be shortly before 7am and shortly after 7pm (8.9m and 8.6m respectively).

Saturday

Another frigid day (max 6°C) but with some distinct differences. Firstly the wind will be coming from a WSW’ly direction (moderate force 4) and this will mean that the air is laden with much more moisture… tall clouds bubbling up as cold air is force to rise by the relatively warm sea beneath it. Showers will be fairly frequent and heavy, falling as a mixture of rain or hail (possibly sleet). There will be some sunny spells between the showers, but they will be short-lived, so if you do head out for a walk then you should definitely be prepared to get wet at some point or another. Overnight, it’s going to be another cold one, with a min temp of 2-3°C and a ground frost in sheltered areas.

Surf and the Water

Flat surf again I’m afraid. Best conditions for cold-water swimming will be along the east coast around the beginning the end of the day. High tide will be around 7:30am (8.8m) and low tide will be around 2pm.

Sunday

Weather

The breeze will veer NW’ly (not very strong though, just light force 3) and this will bring slightly milder air to the islands, still colder than average though, with a max of just 7°C. Weather-wise, it’s going to be sunshine, showers and rainbows again. There’s an outside chance that those showers will fall as hail, but the vast majority of them will simply fall as rain. Overnight, it’s going to be another cold one, with a min temp of 2-3°C and a ground frost in sheltered areas.

Surf and the Water

Flat surf again. Best conditions for cold-water swimming will be along the south and east coasts around the beginning of the day. High tide will be around 8am (8.6m) and low tide will be around 2:30pm.

Next Week

Weather

The start of the week will have a SE’ly wind, bringing very cold and dry air from France. That’s at the surface though. It will be a different story higher up in the atmosphere though, as a nearby Atlantic low pressure system will introduce relatively warm and moisture laden air up there. Snow lovers might recognise this as the perfect set-up for rain turning to snow and giving us a decent covering. Most of you will know from experience that this doesn’t happen very often in the Channel Islands, so it would be best not to set your hopes too high, but it’s definitely good to know that there is a chance of it happening, especially on Tuesday night. After that has either happened (possibly) or not (probably), the airflow will switch to a NE’ly direction and it will probably be dry and clear, meaning that snow will be out of the question, even though it will still be very cold. Daily max temperatures still in the mid-single figures, overnight min temperatures still in the very low single figures.

Surf and the Water

The tides will be high in the mornings and low in the afternoons (medium-large tidal movements to start the week and medium-small tidal movements to finish). Plenty of good quality surf, with offshore winds most days… 2-3 feet on the smaller days, 4-5 feet on the bigger days. Swimming conditions will generally be best along the west coast whenever the tide is high.