We can blame all the rain on the kinky jet stream
WITH August just round the corner, surely we must be in for some summer sunshine? Well, only in dribs and drabs, and with plenty of drips in between.
After yesterday’s mixed bag – rainy at the top and bottom of the UK, but sunny spells in the middle – we are going to shift on our weather axis today in favour of an east-west divide.
So while the band of rain that plagued southern England disappears off towards Scandinavia this morning, leaving the south east, East Anglia and most points up the east coast dry and sunny, with temperatures around 70F (21C), over in Northern Ireland, Wales, south-west and north-west England, plus western Scotland, it is going to be a deluge of hailstones with thunderstorms thrown in for good measure. So much for the joys of a staycation as the mercury dips down to 63F (17C).
As the day progresses, the rain will make its way eastwards. And then, as we move into next week, there will be warm, bright, sunny patches, up as high as 73F (23C), but they will not last long before another downpour arrives.
The problem is, as ever, the jet stream, the air current in the high atmosphere that blows west to east across the Atlantic. When it is to our north, we suck up warm air from the continent and, at this time of year, we get a summer. Right now it is stuck directly above us, meaning that it is mainly drawing in low pressure systems, suppressing temperatures and bringing only a wet blanket.
The one crumb of comfort is that the fast-moving jet stream is kinky – in the sense that it is given to developing kinks. The best-case scenario is that, any day soon, it kinks off northwards and leaves us all in peace.