Sun Withdrawal

[Thundery wintry showers]

A lot depends on how the zonal spell pans out. I think the ECM charts would lead to sun withdrawal over large areas of the country with lots of overcast weather delivered by persistent tropical maritime air and the high too far SE to bring drier sunnier weather to southern England. However, GFS/UKMO are going for more of a strong polar maritime influence which, while not promoting drier sunny weather, would promote a mix of sunshine and squally wintry showers. A large proportion of winter months dominated by polar maritime airmasses end up much sunnier than average, despite often being rather wet, in the eastern two-thirds of the country.

[GSDog]

I hope February brings more sunshine to the SE. I don't remember January being quite so dull and boring.

[Stargazer]

It appears that we in the SE aren't imagining things when we think we've had a prolonged dull spell. Philip Eden's statistics show that Hampstead has had below average sunshine every month since last July - and the London area isn't noted for being particularly sunny on average.

[GSDog]

Looks like we'll have some sunshine tomorrow at last. However, after that it looks like it's going to be dull, wet and windy once again. I need just a couple of days with clear blue skies.

Edited February 7, 2011 by GSDog