Rest of Europe
During the 2nd half of summer and 1st half of autumn, the tropics can play a pretty big role in determining Western Europe’s weather pattern. Especially when there is an uptick in Atlantic tropical cyclone activity and systems moving from low to mid latitudes. Tropical storms and or hurricanes which remain at sea and undergo […]
The same record breaking high which delivered unusually cool temps to Southern Britain to end August and meteorological summer shifted position from near Iceland to Germany then delivered the warmest September day to Ireland and Scotland since 1906, since 1961 for Wales and 2016 for England. The below pressure chart shows the set up with […]
On the heels of England’s coolest August maximum since 1986 (26.4C), our eyes will be watching the thermometer over the next few days as temperatures are expected to push 30C for the first time since July. What’s bringing the heat all of a sudden? Blame a shift in the same high which has dominated in […]
The unusually dry final 7-10 days of August helped rank summer 2021 as one of the driest on record for Scotland. Thanks to dominant high latitude blocking through the June-August period (possibly aided by low solar), northern areas have seen the least rain while parts of south and east England have been fairly wet. https://twitter.com/Petagna/status/1432320157678977024 […]
As the thermometer surpassed 45C for a 2nd consecutive day over parts of Greece and Turkey, parts of France shivered with highs of just 15-20C, a firm 15C!! below normal. The contrast between France and Greece couldn’t be much greater. The 500mb height anomaly doesn’t look all that exceptional! 2m temp anomaly These were the […]
For Northwest Europe (Ireland, UK, France, Low Countries), it’s been a summer of mixed fortunes with spells of wet, dry, cool and warm with of course the relatively long lived warm to hot spell which during mid July. An unusual back to back flash flood event struck London ahead and after a pretty average 7-day […]
Located along the shores of Strangford Lough and near Newtonards, Co Down, Ballywatticock is a name few had ever heard of. Well up until Saturday when at approx 3.40pm became the most famous place in Northern Ireland when news broke that a met office site in the tiny township reported a (provisional) temperature of 31.2C. […]
June 2021 will go down as a warm month across Europe but not without it’s twists and turns. A pattern dominated largely by high pressure but with southerly positioned cut of lows which made for a very wet June over central and northern France and southern Britain. ‘Mirror image’ Omega blocking pattern creates extreme weather […]
Despite three failed attempts at 30C and a well above average month, it’s also been a rather disappointing June, particularly so for southern counties of England. Rainfall has been near double the June average across the south while Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland has been pretty dry and well below average. Monday was of […]
In my previous video I discussed the sharp drop in North Atlantic SSTA’s and many asked why this may be the case. In my opinion, there is no singular reason but a collection of several. Arctic sea ice melt (5th lowest for the time of year) Natural melt of ice/icebergs surrounding Greenland and Iceland Unusually […]

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