High pressure to deliver a spring-like week

Spring sprang into action across England and Wales at the weekend, with Sunday proving to be the warmest day of the year so far, reaching 20.5C at Gravesend in Kent.

An area of high pressure brought mild air from the sub-tropics, which when combined with the ever stronger March sunshine, gave warmth equal to most of the Mediterranean on Sunday.

March is a fickle month as it traditionally marks the beginning of spring – a season that acts as a transition between winter and summer. 

So far, March this year has been completely different to last year, which was the coldest in 50 years and saw much of the country covered in a blanket of snow.

Despite England and Wales enjoying spring-like warmth at the weekend, Scotland and Northern Ireland didn’t fare so well. Cloudy skies, a brisk wind and rain meant that temperatures were stuck in single figures on Sunday.

High pressure dominates

As I wrote in my blog last week, high pressure is set to dominate our weather for much of this week, giving a welcome dry spell following our wettest winter on record.

The jet stream has shifted to the north of the UK, steering areas of low pressure towards Iceland and Scandinavia, allowing high pressure to build over us.

Even though high pressure is going to be with us all week, it doesn’t mean that it’ll be sunny all the time. There will be nuances in the detail, meaning that cloud amounts will vary from day to day.

It may also be the case that mist, fog and low cloud in the morning may take a while to break up, delaying sunshine until late-morning on some days.

Chilly nights

This week will see some decent temperatures by day – especially in the sunshine – with temperatures in the range of 10-17C.

However, the nights are still long enough to allow heat at the earth’s surface to escape under clear skies. As a result, there’ll still be a touch of frost this week – particularly in the countryside.

So, if you’re a keen gardener, don’t be fooled by the daytime warmth. There’ll still be enough of a nip in the air to get at those tender shoots.

Colder next week?

Despite this taste of spring, there are signs that it will turn colder next week, as the high pressure drifts to the west of the UK and allows a chilly north westerly wind to set in.

The weather computer models are giving slightly mixed messages about how cold it is going to be. Nevertheless, it’ll be enough of a change to remind us of the fickle beast that March can be.