Why no rain?!

[JennyJ]

Hi, I'm totally new to this forum, but I've joined because I want to know an answer to a question that never seems to be answered properly on the TV weather forecasts!

Why is the weather in the UK being so dry?

We don't seem to have had 'normal' weather' for the country, and by that I mean the predominantly 'mild and wet' weather that seems to come up from the Caribbean, with a lovely soft, low-pressure dampness that is so characteristic of 'proper' (!) English weather.

I've looked at maps showing the north atlantic jet stream currently, and it seems all over the place! Is this 'normal'? Or is it more tangled and 'abnormal' because of the mess climate change is making to global weather conditions (I believe at some points the northern and southern jet streams have strayed so far out of place they have been mingling over the equator!).

Is the jet stream currently blocking the arrival of low pressure systems off the mid-Atlantic? Or what?

What I want to know is, when will 'proper' English weather get here - ie, the mild, wet, windy weather off the Atlantic that I call 'Westcountry Weather'.....

Any info and enlightenment gratefully received! (Apols if this isn't the right thread to be posting this in.)

Many thanks , Jenny

 

[Paul]

Hi Jenny, this blog from Nick (senior forecaster at Netweather) may give you a bit more info on the lack of rain and what's been happening:

April Drought Continues The Dry Trend

[hillbilly]

Normal weather?? Not sure what you mean Jenny,we have had plenty of wet springs and plenty of dry ones,no one knows what we are going to get but I do know we are well overdue a drought,a long one at that having said that it could start raining and last the rest of the year !

[damianslaw]

Yes we are having a notably dry spell, the driest Oct-Apr period since 96/97, unlike then though we had seen 18 months of very dry conditions coming on the back of very warm dry summer of 1995, very dry cold winter of 95/96, this dry spell has come on the back of a very wet winter previously 15/16 and relatively wet first half to 2016.

I've said so many times in the last 30 years we have tended to see lengthy very dry and very wet periods follow on from each other, with only short bursts of average periods it seems. its perhaps no surprise we are in a dry spell coming on the back of the exceptionally wet winter of 2015/16 and memories of equally very wet winter 2013/14 not that distant. Just a hunch but I suspect this dry spell will break come late summer. El Nino once again returning..