A taste of summer anyone?
It’s been a long wait, but finally some notable warmth and sunshine will grace our shores this week – welcome news for those of us who are a little jaded by the wind and rain that’s been drenching the UK since early April.
Whilst the rain during the past six weeks has been good news for the parts of England suffering from drought, it’s left many of us feeling that we’ve been short changed when it comes to sunshine.
As I mentioned in my blog at the end of last week, the jet stream is weakening and meandering in a more indirect north to south route across the Atlantic at the moment. This means that the progression of weather systems is slower and much more infrequent than what has been the case of late.
This puts us in what could be described as a weather sandwich, with a ridge of high pressure across the UK and low pressure either side, with weather fronts never too far away from Ireland.
These nearby weather fronts will bring the risk of it turning a little cloudier at times for Northern Ireland, as well as the far west of England, Wales and Scotland.
Another subtlety will be mist and low cloud rolling in off the North Sea each night. This will mean that some eastern parts of Scotland and England could start off grey each morning, before the strong May sunshine breaks up the cloud and it retreats back to the east coast.
Otherwise, the main theme of the weather this week will be sunshine and warmth. It’ll also be largely dry, although there is a small chance of an odd thunderstorm as the week progresses.
The highest temperatures are likely to be from Tuesday to Friday, with 20-25C for many places. However around coastal areas where low cloud lingers or sea breezes develop, it will tend to be cooler at 17-20C.
Later on Friday and through the weekend, a brisk easterly wind will bring drier and slightly cooler air, with temperatures coming down by a few degrees with 17-21C more likely.
There’s also a chance of some showers developing, although at this stage the detail is somewhat uncertain and the fine weather could well persist for a little longer.
Whilst many of us will want to enjoy the fine weather, one thing worth noting is that the sun is very strong at this time of year, with the UV index becoming moderate to high.
Also grass pollen levels are set to become medium to high as the week progresses, so if you suffer from hay fever, the symptoms may be more noticeable than they have been so far this year.
If you have any good weather pictures to share during the next few days, you can upload them to the Channel 4 Weather website or share them with me on Twitter – @liamdutton