Spell of high pressure will brighten mood
For once the weather gods are smiling on parents with children to entertain this half-term week, with plenty of high pressure for the next seven days.
If you are heading off on an autumn staycation, or even pitching a tent in granny’s back garden, there will be sunshine and very little rain by day in most places. But look out for chilly breezes as the week progresses.
This morning will start with a covering of fog in many parts of England and Wales.
Once it has lifted, it will be a warmer than average day in much of southern and eastern England, with temperatures as high as 64F (18C) in Hull, 63F (17C) in London, Norwich and Plymouth, and 61F (16C) in Birmingham. Further north and west, a weak weather front will bring outbreaks of rain that may heavy over Yorkshire, but it will only be a notch or two cooler than elsewhere, with 59F (15C) in Belfast and Glasgow.
As the holiday week gets under way, high pressure will keep things settled in England and Wales, while Scotland and Northern Ireland are wetter. Overall it will be getting cooler, more like 57F (14C) even in the warmest parts. Pushing the mercury down is a strengthening northerly breeze, generated by winds pushed along our eastern flank by the jet stream, the ribbon of air currents in the high atmosphere that blows west to east over the Atlantic. The UK is currently to the south of it, hence the prevailing high pressure, but it dips and kinks and, at present, it is plunging its way down the North Sea.
Nothing so severe, though, as to keep the kids indoors. Enjoy it while it lasts. There is some talk of snow by Hallowe’en.