Last July we went from record hot on July’s opening day to near record cold later in the month. This year it’s opposite with a lot of cool, even chilly and breezy days at the beginning and pretty much through the first first to a sudden blast of significant summer heat.

Saturday and Sunday both saw large temp contrasts from NW to SE.

July 2016 has been chilly so far!

Despite nearly 28C in SE England Sunday, it was a below normal mid July day in Scotland.

FEATURE IMAGE CREDIT: Met Office

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Saturday highs

Sunday highs

The contrast, all thanks to low pressure crossing north of the UK keeping it cloudy, breezy and cool across Scotland while much of England and Wales has been south of the fronts and beneath the influence of Azores high pressure.

Now that the weekend system which brought gusty winds of up to 92 mph over the Cairngorms is now pushing into Denmark, the high shall pump hot air north today.

After a gloomy, drizzly open to the new workweek here in Scotland, sunshine should appear through the PM hours allowing temps to climb into the low 20s while the heat that was over the heart of France yesterday (30-32C), should be over southern and Midland England this afternoon. By tomorrow, the hot air is over the heart of Scotland.

As the ridge peaks in intensity Tuesday with maximum sinking and compressional warming, it’s the position of the high on the north shore of the Netherlands and low pressure over the Bay of Biscay which will enhance the surface heating with SSE winds pushing the hotter continental air northwestwards.

Expect to see 45C in Spain, 41C France, 33-34C England and possibly 28 or 29C in Scotland with Northern Ireland pushing 28C.

GFS 2m temp anomaly 12z Tuesday.

As intense as this heat surge might be, it’s unfortunately a very short lived event and is occurring in the midst of a somewhat unsettled, Iceland-Azores pattern. By that I mean it should remain cooler and more unsettled the further north and west, drier and warmer further south and east.

That Biscay low pushes north over the UK by later tomorrow with heavy, thundery downpours and an initial added injection of humidity making the overnight period very stuffy.

Tuesday night looks particularly warm as combination of a hot day and increased humidity slowing the overnight cooling process.

That low eventually clears only to be followed by another sliding in from the SW Friday.

See this morning’s video.

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Tags: heat 2016, heat wave, UK Heat, UK heat wave july 2016