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1,027 hPa, yet it is overcast and drizzly?


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Posted
  • Location: Birmingham, West Midlands
  • Weather Preferences: Heat, sun and thunderstorms in summer. Cold sunny days and snow in winter
  • Location: Birmingham, West Midlands

Hi everyone. First of all, I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to meteorology, so please forgive me for sounding a little dumb.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't high pressure meant to bring settled dry weather with few or no clouds? At the moment, despite having high pressure in charge, the weather is grey and damp over here. In fact, if it wasn't for my barometer, I would probably think that the pressure is a little on the low side right now.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe the anticyclone brought along with it some moisture as it was travelling along the sea?

Thanks in advance.
 

:)

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

Not necessarily! Anticyclonic gloom is very common on these shores. High pressure can bring sunny conditions, but the nature of high pressure means that any cloud that does form can become very stubborn. Areas of high pressure are dominated by descending (or "subsiding") air that can act as a sort of lid on the lowest part of the atmosphere, with temperature inversions (where the temperature actually increases with height) reinforcing this. 

In the winter, this cloud can often be because of moist air being dragged in off the North Sea or the Atlantic at lower levels. This forms gloomy stratus and often drizzle (or if it's cold enough, snow flurries). The "lid" of the high pressure will prevent this cloud from growing any further, and the weak sunshine at this time of year simply means it's very difficult to disperse, and essentially traps the cloud. This is also the reason why air pollution tends to be more of a problem in high pressure situations, the stagnant, stable air means that it can't really disperse anywhere.

Here are a couple of links below if you'd like to read further:

http://www.theweatheroutlook.com/twoother/twocontent.aspx?type=libgen&id=1490

http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/philip-eden/Dull-drab-damp-days.htm

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Posted
  • Location: Birmingham, West Midlands
  • Weather Preferences: Heat, sun and thunderstorms in summer. Cold sunny days and snow in winter
  • Location: Birmingham, West Midlands

Thank you very much for your answer. :D

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