Half Term European holidays

Half term holidays are coming up for some parts of the UK and a few European weather stories may have caught your eye recently if you are travelling abroad. Spain and France have been unusually hot for May with France seeing temperatures up to 30C and southern Spain reaching 40C. There have been severe thunderstorms in France and Germany with tennis ball sized hail and tornadoes reported. Obviously, if you are heading away, you don’t want the UK to be sitting in glorious sunshine with high temperatures whilst wherever you are going it rains all week.

Most of next week is a little bit too far ahead for sturdy detail so if we look at some overall trends for western Europe:

Spain had seen yellow Heat warnings last week but as more unsettled, notably cooler weather pushed down from the Bay of Biscay, the temperatures have fallen this week. The large perturbation on the jet stream forms a cut off upper low over the western Mediterranean and at the surface, there will be some showers for Ibiza and then Sardinia later this week. Showing early next week, the high pressure over the UK deflects the jet north and south so it looks like there could be some development on an Atlantic low pressure moving towards the Algarve by Monday. That would bring blustery winds and showers too.

There are signs for the first week of June that high pressure will linger over NW Europe. However, around that a cooler than average flow could move down the North Sea, particularly affecting eastern Britain. For Spain, Portugal and southern France, temperatures are forecast to be higher than average overall.

For rainfall amounts, western Europe looks drier than average, particularly France. That is the overall theme for the week, however, the low pressure does mean the Algarve could see some warmth in the southerly flow ahead, up to 27C on Sunday 29th but then temperatures around 20/21C to start the new week, if the cloud increases. Madeira could see some rain early next week so for Monday 30th Tues 31st May. The Canary Islands tend to see temperatures in the mid-20s Celsius with good sunny spells. There are signs of a bit more cloud on Monday 30th May, just to start the week.

There is also a shower risk for eastern Spain on Sunday and a bit more cloud about, particularly in the northwest by Monday 30th.

There are signs of warmth building again over Iberia, so temperatures rising for the end of May, start of June. Up to 30C for Malaga in the south. Madrid also back up to 30c by the weekend after a dip

Meteo France "Temperatures should be above the usual values for the season. In terms of precipitation, a drier than normal scenario is also expected. Monday 30/05/2022 to Sunday 05/06/2022:"

The forecast showers rain or showers for Weds 1st, Thurs 2nd over France then back to warm sunshine. So, pack your raincoat as well as the sunscreen, UV levels over Europe are now high. Paris has a showery day, much like the UK although temperatures of 15 to 25C compared to our 12 to 18C for Tuesday 24th.