Following the crazy warmth of February, March has unsurprisingly produced little winter thanks to a strong jet stream throwing one low after another across Ireland and the UK.
A strong, cold polar vortex and MJO has driven the positive-neutral NAO with the Western Europe door wide open. This aided Northern Ireland, Denmark and Sweden to witness it’s wettest March on record through only the first 17 days of the month.
While often strong wind and heavy rain has persistently streamed into Northwest Europe off the Atlantic, an unusually strong Azores high has produced early summer-like warmth from Canaries to Spain and as far north as France.
The relentless invasion of maritime air has resulted in milder than normal throughout the continent except for Scandinavia.
Credit: Michael Ventrice
In recent days, the Atlantic jet stream has been diverted north and south of the UK thanks to a blocking high pressure system over the UK. This setup looks to hold through the remainder of March.
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
As we enter April, there are some indications of the return to something more active, but the longer term idea supports high pressure retreating into Scandinavia but controlling most of Europe’s air space high with Atlantic traffic continuing to reroute north and south.
CFSv2 500mb height anomaly for April
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
2m temperature anomaly for April
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
Precipitation anomaly for April
Credit: Tropical Tidbits
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