It's not all heat and sunshine and if you have been sitting under low cloud or subjected to a torrential downpour you may not want to hear how hot and sunny it is elsewhere. Why are we stuck?
Much of the UK had another sunny, hot bank holiday weekend but not everyone. This week will be more mixed, but it has seemed like West is best with temperatures for western Britain in the mid to high twenties, Northern Ireland being fine, sunny and warm
However, there have been torrential downpours and thunderstorms, bringing along their own cloud cover, mainly for southern Britain and also stubborn low cloud from the North Sea, the fret or haar. Golfers in the haar, East Lothian.
The difference has been huge and if you are stuck under that low cloud feeling cold and damp nearly reaching for your central heating, it is no solace to here, it is too hot in London or Wales.
Usually, the UK gets all its weather from the Atlantic, with a prevailing SW wind. Low pressures whizz in giving western coasts and Ireland the usual wet and blustery weather that comes and goes. A wet morning gives way to a fine afternoon perhaps some showers but warm sunshine, it chops and changes. Usually, the jet stream ferries these low pressures our way, especially in early spring. Currently, the jet stream is well away to the north and high pressure is blocking some of the weather changes, our situation is less mobile.
There is a low-pressure way to the south which when combined with heat from the continent is throwing the thunderstorms and hefty showers our way, but everything is rather slow-moving and stagnant.
So, the east coast keeps the risk of low cloud and a cool breeze off the sea. The North Sea hasn’t warmed up yet and air passing over it feels fresh, even chilly. Western coasts are more protected and sheltered and are managing to hold onto the sunshine and with drier air, temperatures up to 27C (81F). If you made a half term choice for western UK, you did well, this time.
This type of easterly low cloud stock piles over the North Sea and drifts inland overnight. As the sun gets to work and breezes pickup, it is disturbed and melts away, retreating to the coast. Trying to forecast who will keep the gloom and who will see sunshine gets harder the nearer the coast you are, unless the wind shifts.
In the south, this flow of humid, cloudy and showery weather will continue for the next few days. When there is a break in the cloud and you see sunshine, the temperatures will leap up, kick off more convection and aid the showers or storms, producing more cloud.
When High pressure is right over us, we can get the heat and clear skies with sunshine. At the moment, that’s not happening although for some it has been just perfect. Maybe even a bit too hot.
