Damper, cooler spell leads up to a warmer weekend
ONE brilliant burst of heat over a few blissful days doesn’t make a summer. So if you are worrying that last week’s high temperatures, especially in the South and East, may have used up our ration for 2021, then fear not. By next weekend, something hot should be returning from the East. In between, though, it is going to be substantially damper and cooler.
After the recent heat, humidity and thunderstorms, today will be markedly quieter, but not without incident. The band of rain and hot air that swept in from the South yesterday evening will remain active in London, the South East and East Anglia. Low pressure will be heading into the North and West, bringing a fresher feel to the atmosphere there, but also some rain. Overall, it is a mixed bag, but the risk of thunderstorms remains.
Temperature-wise, the humid south-eastern corner will be requiring a summer wardrobe as well as rain mac, with 22C (72F) in Norwich, and 21C (70F) in London. Elsewhere, things will be a bit more disappointing, with 19C (66F) in Cardiff, 16C (61F) in Glasgow and Edinburgh and 14C (57F) in Stornoway in the Western Isles.
As the week gets under way with the summer solstice, the northern half of the country will be wetter, while the presence of low pressure, when combined with the heat of the sun at this time of year, will create unstable conditions everywhere. So factor in the occasional downpour, but the recent sticky heat will have gone. For a while anyway.
By the end of next week, high pressure will build again, drawing in warm air from the South, initially into the eastern side, but gradually giving us all back a taste of summer.