United Kingdom & Ireland
You know it’s been cold when on May 9th your talking about Britain’s first 21C in 5 weeks. An unusually deep low held off SW Ireland thanks to strong ridging over Europe is acting as a bit of a heat pump, driving the warmest air since March, if not the year up through Spain, France, […]
On the heels of the UK’s frostiest April on record, lowest mean minimum temperature on record and after EVERY morning during April at or below 0C (somewhere in the UK), we have now set another 2 UK cold records! The UK maximum Monday, May 3rd was a mere 14.0C recorded in three locales (Southend-on-sea, Heathrow […]
Following a cold, dry April, the Great British weather is beginning to liven up. As we wave goodbye to April and step or perhaps limp into May, we have a sunshine and ‘April showers’ regime. Cool air mass aloft and strong incoming solar radiational means clear morning’s followed by bubbling clouds mid to late morning […]
April 2021 will go down as a notably cold and potentially record dry month, all thanks to a very stubborn, stuck blocked pattern. It’s the persistency in the chill and rain starved pattern that’s been very impressive. Dry April’s aren’t uncommon for the UK but a cold, dry April is. The chill came is two […]
2021 has seen quite the weather seesaw so far with spells of significant cold as well as warm with swings from one extreme to the other. Take February in the UK alone, we had a minimum of -23C recorded at Braemar, Aberdeenshire, 2 weeks later, Santon Downham, Suffolk soared to 18.4C. That’s one of the […]
Through March and indeed April I’ve harped on and on about the lack of cold seen by the long term modelling. This ‘issue’ continues with nothing but ‘hot high pressure’ for the upcoming May-June-July period. We all know that won’t be the case. CFSv2 500mb height anomaly for May-July 2021. Above normal heights equates to […]
Despite some movement back and forth, on the whole High pressure has been holding firm over the UK in recent weeks bringing not just drier but colder than normal conditions. This can likely be attributed to the La Nina and possibly other factors including MJO as well as solar state. The mean position of the […]
It was the perfect setup for an historic March day. An unusually strong anticyclone sandwiched between two cut off lows. The tight pressure gradient and orientation between the low off Morocco and high over the western Med drove a powerful southerly wind which transported hot west Saharan air north over Europe. 500mb height anomaly This […]
Not much write up required here. Quite the rollercoaster this week with taste of summer Monday-Tuesday but winter makes a return by Good Friday. You can see in the below GFS ensemble 5-day mean 500mb pattern the dramatic shift in the blocking high between day 1-5 and 6-10 with retreat from Europe to Greenland. 5-day […]
March 2021 has been a changeable month with flips between high and low pressure, mild and cool and with variable rainfall amounts and distribution. One of the most noteworthy aspects has been the cooling of the continent thanks to cold, continental air flowing west, southwest beneath a persistent area of high pressure often placed west […]
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