Why isn’t the UK affected by Europe’s heatwave? Weather experts explain
While Europe swelters through a deadly heatwave, the UK is experiencing quite the opposite, with wet and windy conditions this week.
According to the Met Office, these ‘unsettled conditions’ are expected to go on until the end of July as low pressure, initially centred close to the UK, drifts to the northeast over time.
In fact, outbreaks of rain or showers, some heavy and thundery, along with windy conditions are expected next week in the UK.
Meanwhile, regions in the Mediterranean are expected to heat up to temperatures that could hit a new European record as soon as this week.
If you’re wondering why the UK is not experiencing the same high temperatures as the rest of Europe at the moment, it’s because of the different weather patterns affecting the two regions.
The current heatwave in Europe is being driven by a stationary high-pressure system located over the Iberian Peninsula – Spain, Portugal, Andorra and southern France. This system is bringing warm, dry air from North Africa into Europe, causing temperatures to soar.
On the other hand, the UK is under the influence of a different weather pattern. A low-pressure system is currently located over the nation, bringing in cooler, more moist air from the Atlantic Ocean, preventing temperatures from rising as high as they are in Europe.
‘The reason the UK is not experiencing the heatwave is because the current pressure pattern puts the country in a dominant low pressure – the atmosphere is always trying to reach equilibrium and so we have a constant pattern of high and low pressures,’ said Dr Chloe Brimicombe, climate scientist and extreme heat researcher, University of Graz.
Additionally, the Jet Stream – a band of strong winds that flows from west to east in the upper troposphere – is also behaving differently.
While the jet stream typically lies to the north of the UK in summer, it has recently shifted southwards. This has led to several changes in the weather patterns in the UK.
‘The southern shift of the Jet Stream that has pushed the high pressure southwards across this region has also led to low pressure systems being directed into the UK, bringing more unsettled and cooler weather here than we experienced in June when the Jet stream was at a more northerly latitude,’ said Rebekah Sherwin, expert meteorologist from the Met Office’s global forecasting team.
The southern shift of the jet stream is likely due to a number of factors, including climate change. Climate change is causing the Arctic to warm more than other parts of the world, causing the Jet Stream to shift southwards, as has happened in recent months.
For the remainder of July, the Met Office has predicted further showers or longer spells of rain, often accompanied by a brisk breeze, with temperatures generally close to or a little below average.
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