Fresher days arrive as heat wave fades away
IF YOU prefer to drink in the summer sun diluted, like the lemon barley water at Wimbledon, then you are in for a binge in the week ahead. After the concentrated sun and humidity of the past few days – with temperatures on Wednesday hitting a June high of 94F (34.5C) not seen since the heatwave of 1976 – westerly winds will bring fresher, breezy but still sunny conditions for most parts of the UK in the days ahead.
Barristers and judges can start wearing the wigs they discarded in overheated courtrooms.
Exeter schoolboys at the Isca Academy can stop wearing skirts in protest at their head teacher’s refusal to allow them to don shorts. And the paramedics overrun by cases of sunstroke on the opening days of the Glastonbury Festival might today find a minute or two to do some Staying Alive when Barry Gibb is on stage.
It’s going to be 63F (17C) in the West Country today, with the odd shower but nothing to stop festival goers regretting packing those bulky wellies. London will reach 72F (22C) with Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast all 59F (15C). The sun should be shorn of its edge thanks to a vigorous wind heading onshore from the Atlantic.
There might be a brief return in the south to the humidity tomorrow, as high pressure from Europe manages to interrupt the flow of low pressure systems from the west. The odd thunderstorm could even occur but by Tuesday we’re back to breezysunshine-and-cardigan weather.
It’s happening because for the time being the jet stream is over Europe. To the south of it everyone basks in heat. To the north, it is all a bit more unpredictable.