Jet stream: a ribbon of extreme winds high in the sky that circle the globe and blow constantly. Normally in Winter it moves over the UK and picks up storms in the Atlantic and sweeps them in our direction. In summer it normally moves north taking the storms with it and allowing the Azores High to push over the Uk giving good weather. When the Jet stream is in the "wrong" place for the time of year it brings unseasonal weather like last summers rain.
High Pressure: A large mass of descending air. Because it descends and flows outwards it prevents clouds and rain from forming and can also block the progress of storms preventing them from reaching us. In summer they bring, well look out the window, in winter it brings sunny but frosty conditions, summer and autumn it can cause fog or sometimes if the air is moist trap low level clouds under it. Large HP areas can very stable giving long periods of air weather. There is a permanent one near the Azores that in summer can sometimes spread right up the the UK.
Low Pressure: A rising air mass caused where hot and cold air meet, the rising air cools forming clouds and rain, meanwhile the rotation of the plant causes the air to rotate around the low generating winds - this is your typical wind/rain storm.
So High - good Low - bad.
Fronts: The lines with blue triangles (cold) and red semi circles(warm) are fronts where hot and cold air meet. The symbols indicate the direction the front is moving in. Air rises along fronts so most are associated with low pressure, but more importantly rain clouds always form at fronts so wherever you see a front you can usually expect rain.
Isobars: These lines join areas of identical pressure together, they give you an idea of how large the difference in pressure between high and low pressure areas is. The closer together the lines the bigger the difference and the stronger the winds. If you pay attention you will find that they are usually very widely spaces around highs (so no wind) but quite tightly around lows with attendant wind)
I don't know if this has been raised yet ( I looked back a few pages) but I've read that statisticians are saying this will very soon be the longest heatwave since 1895.
I'm confused.
What about 1976? The hot weather and lack of rain went on for 3 months !!
Sounds like a load of old bollox to me, unless they are using some weird technical definition of 'heatwave'.
Mean maximum temperature here this month so far is 24.9 deg C. Mean maximum for the whole of July 2006 here (just in from the S Coast) was 25.6 and that's only 7 years ago.
I don't know if this has been raised yet ( I looked back a few pages) but I've read that statisticians are saying this will very soon be the longest heatwave since 1895.
I'm confused.
What about 1976? The hot weather and lack of rain went on for 3 months !!
Can anyone explain this to me,please?
Where does 1895 come into it ? According to CET records, that was a relatively cool Summer.
Do you have a link to this revelatory piece of information ?
Yes there is starting to be some consistency between the models and runs for things to turn back to normal summer weather from midweek next week (Wed/Thu). BBC will probably start mentioning this soon in their outlook forecasts.
Take advantage of the dry sunny weather while you can!
Large range of potential maxima for Tuesday from the Met Office, anywhere from 19 to 26 for Southampton! So, still considerable uncertainty even at five days range but they don't seem to be expecting a repeat of this week in the south.
Yes there is starting to be some consistency between the models and runs for things to turn back to normal summer weather from midweek next week (Wed/Thu). BBC will probably start mentioning this soon in their outlook forecasts.
Take advantage of the dry sunny weather while you can!
Yes there is starting to be some consistency between the models and runs for things to turn back to normal summer weather from midweek next week (Wed/Thu). BBC will probably start mentioning this soon in their outlook forecasts.
Take advantage of the dry sunny weather while you can!
If it comes to pass, I guarantee that by the middle of August there will be people moaning that 'we didn't have much of a summer did we?' - or some other equally nonensical remark.
7 years ago today it hit 36.5°C at Heathrow - the peak of the 2006 heatwave. As for this year, it seems 31.9°C is still the highest temp of the year so far.
I guarantee that by the middle of August there will be people moaning that 'we didn't have much of a summer did we?
Then those people would probably be best advised to move to Spain or somewhere where these temperatures and conditions are generally the norm.
The UK is not Spain or Greece where months of blue skies and high temperatures are the norm, and so dress it up however you like, but endless hot summer days for weeks on end are not 'normal' summers here and although capable of delivering reasonable periods of warm / hot weather, talk of staying like this until the end August is nothing more than guesswork and hopecasting.
If those telling this fable really can predict that far with reasonable accuracy then their unusual skills would replacing computers and they'd earning a fortune with that talent elsewhere, as opposed to posting on forums.
1976 keeps getting bandied around with ill deserved enthusiasm, search the weather forums for that figure and you'll get 1000's of results returned, dating back to the year the forum was started, somebody on them thinks every year is going to be repeat of 1976. How long ago was 1976? - exactly! weather like that is rare, it could be repeated in 2013 - true, but it probably won't.
Right now even as we speak, on the weather forums there is talk of wide variations in temperature across the UK for tomorrow, let alone August, so if the models can't get a grip on the weather & temperatures 24 hours ahead, then how anybody can put faith into them to predict the weather accurately and that its going to be 'hot' for the next month is anybodies' guess.
Unfortunately there are those who will cherry pick the model which best suits their own personal weather preference, ramp it and then sell it on to others for far more than its worth.
This time last week, virtually all of the weather models were predicting hot and sunny weather for the following week, so with such strong agreement it was pretty much nailed on, however this week there is a split, with only one main model forecasting a continuation of hot (or hotter) conditions, and others predicting a breakdown more in line with usual UK summer weather and temperatures, one of them has also brought that breakdown forward to Tuesday / Wednesday.
Of course, how long any breakdown lasts (if it happens) is outside the reliable time frame, it could be a few days, with High Pressure set to rebuild shortly after, or it could shape the rest of the summer, I don't know and neither can anybody else, beyond guessing or putting their faith in a bunch of computer predictions which can (and do) often change, often from run to run.
So in short, things could go either way next week, and these predicted 30+c temperatures next week are by no means set in stone, not yet.
If it comes to pass, I guarantee that by the middle of August there will be people moaning that 'we didn't have much of a summer did we?' - or some other equally nonensical remark.
We've had about 10 days of lovely weather now although some parts of the country have had much longer. The east coast had no sun and sea mists while the rest of the country boiled. We were all saying "not been much of a summer" until a few days ago.
How come you can go to much hotter countries and the roads don't melt. I've just driven along roads and it's pools of tar everywhere It is 28C here
The road temperature will be far hotter than the air temperature. Unfortunately the UK, isn't geared up for high summer temperatures, in the same way that our homes and businesses aren't air conditioned, our working hours aren't tailored around it, and we don't all go for a Siesta during the hottest part of the Afternoon (instead we go out half naked to the beach / park / pub beer garden and get sunburned).
In the same way, I wouldn't be surprised if the core materials used in UK road surfaces weren't geared more for ice and rain, as opposed to absorbing day after day of strong unbroken sunshine.
We've had about 10 days of lovely weather now although some parts of the country have had much longer. The east coast had no sun and sea mists while the rest of the country boiled. We were all saying "not been much of a summer" until a few days ago.
Summer is a time of year - so we get it every year, regardless of what the weather is like!
7 years ago today it hit 36.5°C at Heathrow - the peak of the 2006 heatwave. As for this year, it seems 31.9°C is still the highest temp of the year so far.
It reached 32.2 deg C two days ago at Hampton Water Works IIRC, and 32.0 on the same day at Northolt RAF station.
Where I am there have now been 7 consecutive days of 28 deg C or greater. That beats 2006 at my location and I'm currently looking up the 2003 and 1976 figures, which I don't have here.
Comments
I'm confused.
What about 1976? The hot weather and lack of rain went on for 3 months !!
Can anyone explain this to me,please?
Mean maximum temperature here this month so far is 24.9 deg C. Mean maximum for the whole of July 2006 here (just in from the S Coast) was 25.6 and that's only 7 years ago.
Where does 1895 come into it ? According to CET records, that was a relatively cool Summer.
Do you have a link to this revelatory piece of information ?
See you in September then.:D
Take advantage of the dry sunny weather while you can!
If it comes to pass, I guarantee that by the middle of August there will be people moaning that 'we didn't have much of a summer did we?' - or some other equally nonensical remark.
Then those people would probably be best advised to move to Spain or somewhere where these temperatures and conditions are generally the norm.
The UK is not Spain or Greece where months of blue skies and high temperatures are the norm, and so dress it up however you like, but endless hot summer days for weeks on end are not 'normal' summers here and although capable of delivering reasonable periods of warm / hot weather, talk of staying like this until the end August is nothing more than guesswork and hopecasting.
If those telling this fable really can predict that far with reasonable accuracy then their unusual skills would replacing computers and they'd earning a fortune with that talent elsewhere, as opposed to posting on forums.
1976 keeps getting bandied around with ill deserved enthusiasm, search the weather forums for that figure and you'll get 1000's of results returned, dating back to the year the forum was started, somebody on them thinks every year is going to be repeat of 1976. How long ago was 1976? - exactly! weather like that is rare, it could be repeated in 2013 - true, but it probably won't.
Right now even as we speak, on the weather forums there is talk of wide variations in temperature across the UK for tomorrow, let alone August, so if the models can't get a grip on the weather & temperatures 24 hours ahead, then how anybody can put faith into them to predict the weather accurately and that its going to be 'hot' for the next month is anybodies' guess.
Unfortunately there are those who will cherry pick the model which best suits their own personal weather preference, ramp it and then sell it on to others for far more than its worth.
This time last week, virtually all of the weather models were predicting hot and sunny weather for the following week, so with such strong agreement it was pretty much nailed on, however this week there is a split, with only one main model forecasting a continuation of hot (or hotter) conditions, and others predicting a breakdown more in line with usual UK summer weather and temperatures, one of them has also brought that breakdown forward to Tuesday / Wednesday.
Of course, how long any breakdown lasts (if it happens) is outside the reliable time frame, it could be a few days, with High Pressure set to rebuild shortly after, or it could shape the rest of the summer, I don't know and neither can anybody else, beyond guessing or putting their faith in a bunch of computer predictions which can (and do) often change, often from run to run.
So in short, things could go either way next week, and these predicted 30+c temperatures next week are by no means set in stone, not yet.
How come you can go to much hotter countries and the roads don't melt. I've just driven along roads and it's pools of tar everywhere
We've had about 10 days of lovely weather now although some parts of the country have had much longer. The east coast had no sun and sea mists while the rest of the country boiled. We were all saying "not been much of a summer" until a few days ago.
The road temperature will be far hotter than the air temperature. Unfortunately the UK, isn't geared up for high summer temperatures, in the same way that our homes and businesses aren't air conditioned, our working hours aren't tailored around it, and we don't all go for a Siesta during the hottest part of the Afternoon (instead we go out half naked to the beach / park / pub beer garden and get sunburned).
In the same way, I wouldn't be surprised if the core materials used in UK road surfaces weren't geared more for ice and rain, as opposed to absorbing day after day of strong unbroken sunshine.
Summer is a time of year - so we get it every year, regardless of what the weather is like!
Or doom-mongering
Not here it hasn't, last rainfall where I am was on July 3rd.
It reached 32.2 deg C two days ago at Hampton Water Works IIRC, and 32.0 on the same day at Northolt RAF station.
Where I am there have now been 7 consecutive days of 28 deg C or greater. That beats 2006 at my location and I'm currently looking up the 2003 and 1976 figures, which I don't have here.
For gods sake:(