By this weekend and beyond, the chill of late April will be forgotten, out of sight, out of mind!

Here’s how April’s final week looked over Europe.

We know the heat is building and heading our way. This trend usually sees the warmth over Iberia first. Sure enough it soared to 33.8C yesterday (likely Spain’s warmest day of the year to date).

Stunningly clear sky throughout Iberian airspace yesterday.

Above

Below (view from Gibraltar looking across the Strait to Morocco…

TOP IMAGE CREDIT: Lisa Southgate ‏@lfclee2011

[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]

A Look At The Bigger Picture

Recent times, it’s been warm over Greenland, particularly coastal parts. Check out the flip in Kangerlussuaq, along Greenland’s west coast within a day or two.

While heat builds northward with the subtropical high over Europe, this is often in response to a trough digging down over Greenland. Clear blue, cold skies dominate the heart of Greenland this morning with -30C currently at Summit Camp.

While the heat core is currently centred over Spain, this gets kicked north today and tomorrow as low pressure advances north from Morocco, so Iberia will cool and turn much more unsettled while heat builds into Paris, London, Amsterdam to Berlin Friday-Saturday and extending into Glasgow, Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki Sunday into Monday!

This morning’s infrared satellite shows the low edging into southern Iberia.

How Long Will It Last?

As we progress through the upcoming weekend, that trough continues to deepen over Iberia but this will help push the warmth further and further north and by late weekend and particularly early next week, the models indicate the core of warmth to be stretched from Scotland to Finland where it’s likely to be warmer in the West Highlands than many parts of Spain, France and even southern England.

See this morning’s video.

[/s2If][s2If current_user_cannot(access_s2member_level1)][magicactionbox id=”18716″][/s2If]