Mild Azores wind will blow the chill out of the air
THE political weather may be particularly stormy around Westminster at the moment, but in the real world the battering we took from storms Arwen and Barra is finally giving way to something benign and balmy in the week ahead.
A sub-tropical airflow is heading our way from the south-west and looks likely to stick around for the rest of the week. The start of better times came yesterday in southern parts, but today they will be around for almost all of us.
Only in north-west Scotland might colder winds from the north be slow to clear. Elsewhere, the rain will be reduced to the occasional shower and the chill in the air replaced by unseasonably high temperatures.
Across swathes of southern England, South Wales and East Anglia, the mercury could hit 57F (14C), better than Barcelona or Rome. In the Midlands, North West and Northern Ireland, it will be a notch or two down at 55F (13C), and Glasgow and Edinburgh will enjoy 52F (11C).
And the good news keeps on coming. There may be a brief band of rain around in central areas of the UK tomorrow, but it will remain at a steady 57F (14C) in most parts of England and Wales thanks to that mild wind blowing up from the Azores. It will be accompanied by plenty of cloud and the odd patch of rain, but when the bright spells break through it really won’t feel like your typical December. This plume of warm air is set to remain until next weekend, though in northern Scotland lowpressure systems will intrude intermittently to bring more rain and falling temperatures.
Will it last all the way through to Christmas? That is looking unlikely at the moment, but then would we want it that way? Colder conditions, even including in some scenarios traditional Christmas snow, is currently looking more likely.