Coast of many colours
A rainbow over White Nothe, a chalk headland on the south coast, near Weymouth in Dorset. It’s name literally means “white nose”.
THERE has been plenty of light around this past week to interrupt the gloom as we trudge into February.
First there was there was that extraordinary moon, which traded variously as “super” (bigger than usual), “blood” (tinged with red in some parts of the world because of a lunar eclipse) and “blue”, the term used for a second full moon in a single month, so rare that they only happen “once in blue moon”. Then on Friday we had the Christian (originally pagan) festival of Candlemas, where believers go to church to get their candles blessed as they bring light into the darkness.
We’re going to need them in the grey week ahead. There is a great slab of cold air sitting over the UK at the moment, as apparently unmovable as Henry Bolton is as leader of Ukip.
In other words, under attack, and bound to go eventually, but not quite yet. This morning will start cloudy and grey, with showers that could turn to sleet in the northerly wind.
In Northern Ireland and northern Scotland, though, there should be an interlude of sunshine that will push temperatures up to a heady 45F (7C) in Belfast and Stornoway.
Over on the eastern seaboard of the UK, where the full force of those chilly winds will be felt, the mercury may read 41F (5C) but it will feel colder, so cold indeed that there is a chance of snow in East Anglia and the south-east corner of England.
Sunday night into Monday, the next wave of milder air, once again containing rain, will make landfall in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Where the moisture meets the cold, snow showers are likely. And this attempt to shift the cold air will prove no more successful than the last. Instead it will set a pattern for the rest of the week, with the clash of milder, damp Atlantic air with the Artic block in control over the UK making snow a possibility in most parts.