Befuddling days for our upside down world
WITH everything else in the world upside down at the moment, it comes as no surprise that our weather is operating on shuffle-play mode.
After the sunniest April on record, we have had the coldest overnight May temperature in 20 years in Northern Ireland: -6.1C (21F) in Katesbridge on Thursday. Just days later the mercury is set to zip up to 25C (77F).
In such circumstances, it is probably best not to look ahead too far. So today, after pleasantly warm air got us back in our gardens on Saturday, benign high pressure is going to be squeezed down into the south-eastern corner of England. In its place in Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of north west England, will come low pressure, bringing with it cloud and rain, particularly persistent north of the border, where temperatures won’t get any higher than 14C (57F).
Further south, the residual high pressure keeps it dry and sunny: 18C (64F) in Birmingham, and 20C (68F) in East Anglia and the London region.
By Monday, drizzle and patchy cloud drift southwards, making for a damp start to the week, but if your garden is needing some water, make the most of it because on Tuesday, the high pressure will be back, drawing in warm southerly winds with temperatures more summery.
If looking forward is perilous, then in the Finnish ski resort of Levi, 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle, they have been counting their existing blessings – and storing them up. With record snowfall set to go to waste thanks to the lockdown, they scooped up 15,000 truckloads of the white stuff to store under insulating fabric that will stop it melting, ready to be spread thickly come October.