Big showers followed by a spell of warmth
The atmosphere has been bubbling up like a cauldron through the weekend and during Monday, with showers and thunderstorms spreading across most of the UK.
As I mentioned at the end of last week, warm, humid air was going to collide with cooler air off the Atlantic to provide the recipe for some lively downpours.
Where the two collided, the warm, moist air was thrown way up into the atmosphere to around 30,000ft – the height at which commercial airliners fly.
It is effectively like taking the lid of a saucepan of cooking popcorn, resulting in the bubbles of air rushing rapidly upwards in the atmosphere, forming cumulonimbus clouds that produce thunder, lightning, heavy rain, hail and gusty winds.
Spectacular clouds
With plenty of moisture spread through the depth of the atmosphere and air rapidly rising upwards and downwards around thunderstorms, there have been some spectacular cloudscapes in recent days.
Mammatus, cirrocumulus, cirrus uncinus and undulatus asperatus, just to name a few, have been spotted – shown in your tweets below.
@liamdutton lovely clouds in #woodford ,east London pic.twitter.com/oHg97H3Tir
— Kate Nelson (@KateNelson999) June 9, 2014
@JonMitchellITV @liamdutton Stormy skies in Queensbury #yorkshire pic.twitter.com/UAtnjBnabE
— Chris Johnson (@blokeonradio) June 9, 2014
It’s all thunder and lightning and pretty clouds @WeatherWebb pic.twitter.com/RNNHruMNe5
— Alexander Mills (@AGJMills) June 9, 2014
Showers easing
The rest of Monday and Tuesday will see further showers and thunderstorms – especially across northern and western parts of the UK.
As is often the case with summer downpours, some places could see a lot of rain fall in a short space of time, bringing a risk of localised flooding.
However, from Wednesday onwards, high pressure will take greater control – especially across the southern half of the UK.
This will mean that the second half of the week will tend to be drier with sunshine, although Scotland and Northern Ireland will always be prone to thicker cloud and a little rain drifting by.
Rising temperatures
With high pressure providing less cloud and more sunshine later this week, temperatures are set to rise by a few degrees.
By Friday, Scotland and Northern Ireland will see temperatures reach 17-21C, with England and Wales reaching 18-26C.
As you would expected with strong June sunshine, the UV levels will be moderate to high for most places – worth bearing in mind if you are outdoors for any length of time.
If you’re a hay fever sufferer, then you probably won’t be pleased to hear that grass pollen levels will be on the rise, reaching high or very high by the end of the week.
Don’t forget, you can get the latest forecast on the Channel 4 Weather website. If you capture any good weather pictures, you can send them to me on Twitter – @liamdutton