Temperatures retreat as winter chills blow in
It is hard to decide what is the appropriate weather – if such a thing exists – for Remembrance Sunday. Cold and damp would recall the horrific conditions in the trenches during the First World War, but potentially deter some from coming out. Cold, bright and crisp wakes us up and makes it harder to avert our gaze from the chilling enormity of what we are remembering.
And those will be the conditions this morning in most parts of the country, including at The Cenotaph in Whitehall. The cold air from the far north that started streaming down the spine of the country yesterday is now dominant, pinning back temperatures everywhere, with just 48F (9C) in London and Cardiff, 44F (7C) on the exposed East Anglian coast, 43F (6C) in Newcastle and Aberdeen. Even in the sheltered south west, Plymouth will see no more than 50F (10C). The sun will be out, and the only showers will be isolated, but that chill in the breeze will negate any benefits.
As the working week gets under way, those wintry conditions remain, though high pressure from the south will start nudging in across southern England and Wales briefly on Tuesday, pushing up the mercury, before being knocked away again by the arrival of Atlantic lows. And so the week ahead is set to be a succession of rain and gloom, though the change to westerly winds will at least see a gentle increase in temperatures to highs of 53F (12C).
The later part of the week remains uncertain, with more turbulent low pressure systems and milder, more settled highs in competition. Their effects, now easier to record with the opening of an automatic weather station 4,411ft up on Ben Nevis.