Summer warmth returns – enjoy it while you can
THE evenings may be getting cooler, a telltale sign of autumn’s arrival, but there is still some late summer warmth to be had around the UK. As a general rule, sunseekers should head south and west to take advantage of a spike of subtropical air that could see temperatures of 25C (77F) in southern England on Tuesday.
For today, though, a weather front has travelled overnight from Northern Ireland into the English Midlands, bringing showers that will turn heavy in some places. By late afternoon there is even a chance of thunder in the south eastern corner as the front moves off towards continental Europe.
Scotland will have the best of the sunshine, but low pressure off its north east coast will keep the mercury down in northern parts to just 13C (55F). Elsewhere, anywhere on a band from London to Cardiff to Plymouth will see 18C (64F), the Midlands and East Anglia 17C (63F), and Belfast, Glasgow and Edinburgh 16C (61F).
As the working week gets under way, southerly and westerly areas will see high pressure building, with a warm breeze blowing up from the Azores bringing settled, sunny conditions. Enjoy it while you can because, as ever with our weather, nothing lasts.
By Thursday and Friday, a shift southwards in the Jet Stream, that ribbon of air currents in the high atmosphere that blows west to east across the Atlantic, will see the whole of the UK turning colder and wetter.
And it is out in the Atlantic where all the action is taking place. Authorities in the US have announced that, because they are anticipating a record number of tropical cyclones, the 26 A-Z names lined up may not be quite enough so they will resort to the Greek alphabet.