Stormy start with plenty of bluster for election week
Well, the Christmas tree is now up in Trafalgar Square, but it arrived from Norway looking a bit bedraggled, according to some disappointed Londoners.
And between now and the big day, all 80ft of it look set – along with much of the British Isles – to take a battering from blustery winds. Whether the tree will also accumulate a dusting of snow is still too soon to know.
The rain and wind seen in western Scotland and the north of Ireland yesterday afternoon and evening have moved south and east, meaning that many of us will start today with rain on the window panes and a breeze rattling the letter box.
Once that misery has blown itself out by late morning, it will leave a legacy of showers in the west but drier, milder conditions in the east. Expect 12C (54F) in London, 10C (50F) in Hull, but just 8C (46F) in Belfast.
The arrival of another low-pressure system this evening will once again ramp up the rain and wind. With the isobars tightly packed on the weather map (they register the atmospheric pressure at that point), it is looking set to be a stormy night. Some forecasts are predicting disruptive winds of up to 80mph in south-western parts of England and South Wales.
For the week ahead, it would be wise to expect no two days to be the same. So Monday is looking dry, though a northerly wind will blow in cold air and push the mercury down. Tuesday will take us back to wet and blustery weather; Wednesday quieter but cool, and so on.
As yet, there is not a hint of anything to give our Christmas trees an elegant covering of white.
But it is too soon to be dreaming of a white Christmas. There is a general election to weather first, and at the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, scientists from the World Meteorological Organisation are presenting data that shows the last decade, 2010-19, has been the warmest on record, with greenhouse gas emissions identified as the cause.