We’re approaching May’s point in 5 days and we’re seeing mean average temperatures solidly 2-4C below normal.

Europe 2m temperature anomaly for May 2021 through the first 9 days.

Although we’ve seen a wave of (record) warmth spread north and east across Europe over recent days, this is a brief event as can be seen in the day by day Europe maximum temp charts below. Fresher Atlantic air can be seen pushing the heat east as LP becomes established over the UK rather than to the west.

This low, seen below on satellite was forced to deepen to an unusual May depth of sub-970mb off Ireland due to the resistance of a strong ridge over Europe. The low and high acted as a wheel, pulling heat from Africa north and then as the ridge weakened slightly over Europe, so the low nudged further east over the UK weakening all the while, this has forced the heat from west to east Europe.

Pressure chart back on Sunday.

Today

Sunday produced 33.1C in Basque Country (France’s hottest day of 2021), Monday produced 30C in Strasbourg and 30C in Germany. Today (Wednesday) Krakow, Poland reached 30C.

Monday

Tuesday

Today

As can be seen in the below chart of UK maximum temperatures for the month so far, highs are restricted to only between 14-18C, not particularly warm for nearly mid May.

The real warmth of recent days remained over mainland Europe hence why Santon Downham, Suffolk was the UK warm spot at only 22.5C.

The remainder of the month looks to remain well below average virtually continent-wide.

So combined last month….

This month so far…

and continued below normal. This is an unusually lengthy cool spell which could become Europe’s coldest April-May in decades!!

The below chart shows how Europe has been trapped beneath a pool of unusually cool air within the lower troposphere during April.