The rain dance continues as summer holds off
IT HAS been something of a rain dance so far this year. A very wet first few months were followed by a bone-dry April and May. Now, since late June, the rain has just kept on coming, and that wet-dry-wet pattern will repeat itself on a micro-scale this coming week. The lazy, hazy days of summer will remain just a dream for a little longer.
After rain dampened many a grand reopening yesterday, especially in the North and West, the weather front causing all the problems will start moving southwards overnight. The Midlands, eastern and southern England will see more substantial showers than previously, and there is still that blustery but humid southwesterly breeze to contend with.
Behind it, though, sunnier, fresher air will sweep across Northern Ireland into north-west England and North Wales, but Scotland will struggle to shake off the rain, which later in the day may once again become heavier and even thundery in the north-west. That humidity will mean that temperatures are mild enough, 70F (21C) in London, 64F (18C) in Bristol and Cardiff, but up in Glasgow and Edinburgh just 59F (15C).
Monday will see a shift in wind direction to northwesterly. While that will push temperatures down even further in northern Scotland, elsewhere the humidity will finally lift. A band of rain showers will pass north-west to south-east across the whole country, picking its targets at random. Still the breeze is strong, but the cooler nights will make sleeping easier.
So the early part of the week will see our wet phase. On Tuesday into Wednesday a ridge of high pressure will build in from the south-west, quietening everything down and pushing up the mercury, but this dry patch is short-lived. By Friday, the weather dance will return to rain, as a conveyor belt of low-pressure systems backing up out in the Atlantic prepares to move in from the west.