A rare fog bow lifts the spirits as frost sets in
THESE are testing times for weather forecasters, or more precisely for the computer models that are used to predict our weather. They only spotted Storm Angus last weekend at the very last minute, and in the coming week they are again in two minds as to what will actually happen.
For today, however, there is no escaping the chill as a cold weather front passes down from the north over England and Wales. There may be some rain in there, but largely it will be a dry, overcast and bloodcooling affair, with the best of the temperatures in the south-east corner at 50F (10C).
The front snakes all the way over northern Europe to Russia and will bring in its wake blue skies, but crisp, cool conditions, with heavy frosts overnight. Easterly breezes will add an extra nip to the air tomorrow and Tuesday, so expect little more than 44F (7C) in most of England and Wales.
And after that? Well, that is where the computer is saying, “don’t know” just now. It all comes down to a particularly unpredictable jet stream, the ribbon of air in the high atmosphere that blows west to east across the Atlantic. The jet stream is zooming up and down over the UK at the moment like the Red Arrows. If the tip of one of its sorties dips down south later in the week, it will suck in cold air from the Arctic.
If it does the opposite, and peaks over northern Scotland, an infusion of warm air from the south will bring milder conditions. It is a case of wait and see.
But if the prospect of hard times ahead makes your heart sink, up on a frosty Rannoch Moor, south of Glen Coe, photographer Melvin Nicholson was treated to a rare “fog bow” – a white rainbow made up of tiny water droplets – that turned the place into a winter wonderland.