Back to normal after hottest day of 2012 so far
There were mixed fortunes on the weather front at the weekend. Despite some sunshine, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and western parts of England were plagued by cloud and occasional rain.
Things were quite different though for central and eastern parts of England, where a plume of heat and humidity brought the hottest days of 2012 so far.
On Saturday the temperature reached a sizzling 32.4C at Cavendish in Suffolk, with many other places getting into the low 30s. There were a few showers around on Sunday, but the temperature still got up to 31.1C at Cambridge.
Whilst this, combined with high humidity, made it feel oppressive – particularly for sleeping at night, it paled in comparison to the temperatures over mainland Europe.
Scorching Europe
During the weekend, much of France, Spain and Italy experienced intense heat, with temperatures widely around 35-40C. Paris and Lyon reached 38C on Saturday and Pamplona in Spain hitting 41C.
The intense heat is set to continue for the first half of the week, but will gradually become confined to the Mediterranean by Friday, with temperatures for much of Europe returning to the high 20s rather than the 30s.
Our weather this week
Back here in the UK, this week’s weather is looking changeable. Northern and western areas will tend to be breezier with sunshine and heavy showers.
Further south and east across England, whilst there’ll be a few showers at times, there’s likely to be a lot of dry weather with some sunshine.
Temperatures are likely to be around average for late August, generally in the range of 17-22C.
Bank holiday weekend
With next weekend being a bank holiday, there’s no doubt that everyone wants to know what the weather holds.
At the moment, it looks like the weather will live up to its reputation for a typical bank holiday, with low pressure arriving on our shores.
Whilst there is still some uncertainty, it looks like it’ll be quite cool with sunshine and heavy showers, accompanied by a gusty wind.
The reason for the change to more active weather next weekend is the jet stream. As well as moving a bit further southwards, it’s also going to speed up, which are key factors in making the weather more unsettled.
Don’t forget, you can keep up to date with the latest five day forecast on the Channel 4 Weather website or you can always follow me on Twitter – @liamdutton