Dry January to continue for rest of the month
IT IS giving a whole new meaning to Dry January. If some of us are doing without alcohol for the month, then large parts of the country have been – and will continue to be – going without rain.
That will certainly continue to be the picture for the week ahead in England and most of Wales. Only in Scotland, especially in the North West, will there be any substantial rainfall.
The reason is the dominance of high pressure heading in from the South West at the moment, and sitting pretty still over the country, with very little wind to move anything on. Only in northernmost parts is the air flow brisker coming in from the Atlantic and bringing rain in its wake.
This weekend will, however, have seen one noticeable change from the week just gone. Those bright blue skies by day, bookended by early morning frost and fog and chilly, crisp nights, started to give way yesterday to more cloudy conditions. And that switch will gather pace today.
Under heavy skies, England and Wales will struggle to do much better than 46F (8C), the seasonal average. Up in Scotland, by comparison, there may be rain, especially in the Hebrides, but the mercury will tip 50F (10C) in Stornoway and 48F (9C) in Aberdeen.
Tomorrow, a fresh weather front will bring more rain into Scotland and reach Northern Ireland and northern England before petering out. But everywhere else – with perhaps the exception of the north-west tip of Wales, it will be dry but grey. And as the week goes on that high pressure is looking set to stay put, offering very little change, and very little rain.
Are we on course for our driest January yet? A prolonged spell of high pressure in January 2006 saw rainfall down to a third of its usual level. That record is under threat, but displacing January 1997 – the driest of the 20th century with rain down to 18 per cent of the normal total – may be a stretch.