Strange summer weather reflects our altered times
YOU may have missed it, but we are now in meteorological summer.
In line with the strange times we are living through, however, it feels more like autumn, with memories fading fast of those glorious blue skies and the Mediterranean warmth that brightened up the early stages of lockdown.
In their place, we have gloom, grey and cold. The rain that fell yesterday, especially along the North Sea coast, is largely gone this morning, though some of it is hanging on in there in East Anglia.
The winds, however, remain strong – they reached 60mph in northern England yesterday. What has caused our summer to go missing – temporarily, we hope – is a lowpressure system to the east, which is moving slowly southwards, depressing temperatures as it goes.
Under cloudy skies, Norwich will struggle to 57F (14C), and London to 63F (17C). Over in more sheltered western and northern parts, the prospects are better – 64F (18C) in Cardiff and 61F (16C) in Glasgow.
The absence of rain has been a major preoccupation for farmers and gardeners in recent weeks, so the less than an inch (10-20 mm) that will fall over the weekend in northern and eastern England is welcome.
Still, though, there has been next to nothing in southern England, and the farming charity Forage Aid is warning of a drought unless things change.
There is little to assuage such worries in the forecast for the week ahead. High pressure will build in from the west tomorrow and Tuesday, quelling the winds and even allowing us a little sunshine, but rain remains absent from the picture.