Spring begins to linger as warmer weather settles
THAT’S more like it. Spring is definitely in the air as high-pressure systems build in from the south, bringing settled, dry and mild temperatures.
It was there last week – London touched 63.5F (17.5C) on Thursday – and, give or take the odd burst of rain, will stay with us for the next few days.
Any rain that interrupted our Saturday will clear off to the east today. While it may be slightly cooler than yesterday, with anything from 55F (13C) in London to 48F (9C) in Glasgow, the mercury will be rising as we enter the working week, with light winds and only the occasional downpour to drench the hosts of golden daffodils.
The unusually mild winter we have recently left behind was caused, in part, by the presence over Britain of continental high pressure systems that blocked the more usual pattern of lows arriving from the Atlantic.
And that same set up has persisted into the spring. For much of next five days there will be a high over southern and central England and Wales, acting as a barrier to the weather fronts pushing in from the west.
Only in Northern Ireland and northwest Scotland are the rain and wind looking likely to make a breakthrough.
For those regions, I could recommend brollies and a warm coat, but veteran forecaster Bill Giles has bemoaned a “nannying” tendency in weather reports. Give people facts and let them use their common sense, he urged.
Quite what would have been appropriate dress in the Australian city of Adelaide on Christmas Day is hard to fathom. A new report on the country’s “angry summer” notes that 200 weather records have been broken amid heatwaves and flooding.
Among them was Adeleide’s hottest day – broken after 70 years on Christmas Day when it hit 106F (41.3C).