Unsettled weekend ahead, but promising for Glastonbury and Wimbledon
Today marks the summer solstice – the point at which the sun reaches the highest point in the sky, bringing the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.
Unfortunately, the weather this coming weekend across the UK really isn’t going to conjure up a sense of summer, as low pressure sits right over the top of us.
However, it has to be said that the weather this June hasn’t been too bad at all. There have been some days of warm sunshine nestled between the wetter and windier spells.
As I wrote in my blog last week, there are signs that the Azores high pressure is going to play more of a part in the weather this summer than it did last year.
This means that the jet stream will tend not to get stuck in the same place, as it did last year, leading to more typical summer weather of fine spells interspersed with occasional rain and showers.
This weekend
In the coming days, the jet stream is going to speed up and take a little bit of a dip just to the south of the UK.
As a result, an area of low pressure in the Atlantic is going to be steered towards us – arriving later on Friday night and staying with us all weekend.
With low pressure sitting over us this weekend, it’s going to be cool and unsettled everywhere, with showers or longer spells of rain possible.
The heaviest and most frequent downpours will be towards Scotland and Northern Ireland, but even elsewhere, despite fewer showers, sunshine will be in short supply thanks to a lot of cloud.
Another notable factor of the weather this weekend will be the strength of the wind. Gusts of 40-50mph will be possible – mainly for southern and western parts of England and Wales.
Temperatures will be disappointing too, hovering at around 14-19C, which is below average for this time of year.
Next week
Thankfully, the weather looks set to improve again into next week, as the jet stream moves further north again, allowing high pressure to build from the south west.
This means that there’ll be a return to drier, sunnier and warmer weather for most of the UK, although it will be breezy at times.
Towards the end of next week, Scotland and Northern Ireland will probably see it turn more unsettled again with some rain, with a chance that this could spread across England and Wales next weekend.
Wimbledon and Glastonbury
There are two major outdoor events that are weather dependent next week – the Wimbledon tennis championships and the Glastonbury music festival.
Wimbledon could see the odd shower early next week, but to be honest, it looks to me like there’ll be a lot of dry weather for the first week, with few, if any, interruptions to play.
Glastonbury is also set in good stead for much of next week, thanks to high pressure extending in from the south west. Therefore, it looks fine and dry.
The only thing to keep an eye on is the chance of rain during the weekend of the 29-30 June – but this detail is subject to change.
Don’t forget, you can get the latest forecast on the website. I’ll also be tweeting updates on Twitter – @liamdutton
Satellite image credit: Eumetsat 2013