Why this Easter may be colder than Christmas
IN the traditional imagery of Easter morning, it unfolds with a gentle mist as Jesus’s female followers rise early and approach His tomb. When they discover it is empty and He then appears to them, risen from the dead, beams of sunshine break through to announce the dawn of a new era.
Anyone hoping for anything approximating to these conditions this Easter morning is, however, going to be disappointed. Instead of a warm sun, there will be cloud, a stiff breeze and outbreaks of rain. In many parts of the country, Easter Sunday is going to be colder than Christmas Day.
The best of the weather will be down in the south-western corner. A high-pressure system, tentatively edging in from the warmer waters of the Atlantic, will bring sunshine and temperatures of up to 55F (13C) anywhere from Plymouth to Cardiff.
But the ever-present wind will keep the mercury down, and elsewhere it is these chilly gusts, originating from a polar maritime air mass over Iceland, that will cause temperatures to struggle to reach 50F (10C) from Glasgow down to Birmingham. Towards the east coast, a pile-up of weather fronts could bring rain from Newcastle down to Hull and beyond.
The same weather fronts will hang around into Bank Holiday Monday. With a weak Jet Stream our weather will be stuck in a groove. The high to the south-west will continue to bring pleasant conditions to Devon and Cornwall, and may even extend its benign reach further along the south coast, but over on the east coast, the low out over the North Sea will keep things cooler and damper.
Over in Newfoundland, they are experiencing a different sort of unexpected appearance this Easter. Hundreds of icebergs have arrived off the northeastern coast of Canada, two months ahead of their normal cycle.