Today's Top Weather StoriesOn Weather & Climate Through the Eyes of Mark VoganBritain warms to Meditereanean levels as High sits overhead-By Mark VoganMy garden "shade temperature" is a Mediterannean like 76 degrees under perfect blue skies and blazing sunshine. What more could you ask for? This is the story for pretty much all of Britain with 70s stretching to Inverness and even some spots in Dumfries and Galloway and perhaps even sheltered parts of Argyll could see upper 70s as the center of high pressure is now positioned directly overhead and this warming the air aloft enough to supress the cloud-forming. Also known in meteorological terms as "capping" and this is usually when your in an area directly beantha the core of high pressure of pressure heights are suffient enough to warm the air to higher elevations within the atmosphere. Meaning the air isn't as cold aloft as normal.
The three way combo of (1) cloud free skies (2) sub-tropical high pressure directly overhead and (3) the relatively dry soils of the British landscape is all aiding in bringing us true summer heat.
Though all of Britain, except for the odd unfortunate coast that's seen more cloud and fog, than sun for much of the day is enjoying, inland areas are seeing 70 + warmth and abundant sunshine, there are key differences across the country in terms of where the "warmest air" is. The Midlands of England and even sections of interior southern Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway) and (Lothian and borders) are finding themselves enduring hotter temperatures than your typical hot spots of the south of England such as London, Oxford or Brogdale. This is thanks to the "core of high pressure" or strongest pressure heights located between Glasgow and Manchester, this is why highs are pushing the upper 70s today (Saturday) for the Greater Manchester area and southern Scotland and only low to mid-70s for areas of the south. However, tomorrow the core will start to progress south and will beam directly over the south of England and Wales by tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday and thus as we begin to see cooler highs only perhaps to between 68-70 degrees here in central Scotland. Highs will actually be warmer to the south of Manchester than not only Scotland has been today but highs should warm the the highest levels of the year with low 80s forecasted by myself.
There have been showry, cooler weather covering the far north of Scotland and thunderstorms or heavy, isolated cells have blown up with the heat of the day, particularly across the Peninnes and even across the higher ground of Scotland where the rise of air into the cooler levels are aided by mountains. The hills help air to flow vertically ands thus thermals (columns of rising air) are enhanced around mountains. Sea breezes also aid in thunderstorm development and with relatively high elevated hills in an area exposed to the sea breezes can be the perfect place to see heat induced thunderstorms...
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Weather TalkBy Mark VoganWhat's hot and what's not?Today saw Britain "warm" to near 80 degrees with Med-like warmth spreading across Scotland. Tomorrow should see low 80s for the southern half of England whilst Scotland commences it's cooldown.It appears HOT is what this weather has been this weekend for many. Some struggling and some lapping the rays up. However today's "hot" weather seems downright cool compared to the high achieved today in Pakistan of 124 degrees or 51C. I'll be honest, I am one that gets a little annoyed when forecasters call this current spell of 75-80 degrees HOT, i'd rather say warm to very warm. Hot to me, for here, would be more like 88 degrees and above. However I can understand the term "hot" with low to mid-80s when you look at the average high of only 60 degrees or 16C. That's a good 20 plus degrees above normal so perhaps your on the border with, hot!Despite those Asians that are enduring blowtorch, gruelling desert heat, though you may scoff at us Brits, we do find this weather somewhat on the warm side, and here is the point to this, WHEN YOU COMPARE TO NORMAL this is warm, perhaps even hot if you will. I personally consider this warm in Scotland where I've recorded 75 to 76 degrees and the highs generally around 80 for southern Britain, that would be considered in the "very warm" category for me.It's basically all reltive to what your as an individual can take when it comes to heat and what your use to.What was truely facinating for me was this past winter. As the cold and very cold weather persisted, we became use to lower temperatures because are body got use to that particular temperature, however when it suddenly changes, we struggle, complain and find ourselves unused to the change. Residents or long term visitors to sub-tropical regions would simply consider our type of warmth pleasant and normal. Believe me, if this weather kicks in later for the long term, we will eventually become use to this and our bodies will find it even less hot than now, even if it "gradually gets warmer". Remember we have been accustomed to cold and snow from December right up until the start of May..What's hot to some will not be to others. It truely depends upon your latitude, proximity to the sea/ocean, what's your "average temp", how does it compare to normal? Does humidity get involved?The famous one seems to be. Oh it's 110 degrees in Phoenix but it's a dry heat! Whilst those in New Orleans may appear to not get all that hot compared to Phoenix, but heck that 90 degrees is combined with high humidity, making it feel like 110. That 110 feels-like in New Orleans likely would feel worse to the body than 110 degrees of dry heat.It really is amazing at how we all compare what's hot and what's not around the world... My blog today talks about "very warm to hot" weather for Britain, if this is hot, how do I compare Pakistan's heat of today? During winter we saw day after day of below freezing weather. Very cold nights for British standards became the norm, so for us, a typical winter and mild Atlantic air and persistent storms which was absent in 09-10. Like the folks of Pakistan may scoff at us Brits complaining about the "heat". We and folks in the Northern US and Canada would scoff Floridians when they claim it's cold at 10C. The difference there is they're average temperature is so much warmer, just like we are so much cooler compared to normal to that of the climate in Pakistan and India. You only have to look at how strong the high is directly over northwest India and Pakistan and just see the so much weaker high over us. I must say it's also interesting to notice that during "hot spells" the US Northeast may see daytime 90s and nightime 70s, even 80. Those nighttime lows would be considered "warm". In South Florida, the norm for nights may be upper 70s to low 80s, those locally would be considered "mild".As for here, London expects a warm, muggy night down to perhaps low 60s! Yes that is not particularly warm for many places, in fact most would think a warm 60-degree night in London and 52 degree night up in Glasgow was considered warm, many fail to understand that we are surprisingly humid, thanks to water, never far away wherever your located within Britain. Warm the land under high pressure like we have now and draw that humid air in aboard sea breezes and there we see daytime upper 70s linger well into a sticky, muggy night. Again British people in general aren't use to hot weather. We don't live in a latitude where sub-tropical high's rule, nor do we live deep within a continental land mass, therefore we're naturally never too hot or too cold, though this past winter certainly displayed a much more continental winter than we've seen in a very long time.Houses soon become oveans during warm spells.What I've always thought was interesting was that during a period of perhaps 7-10 days where highs regularly topped the mid to upper 70s and nights perhaps dropped off to 55-65. Non-airconditioned, brick or concrete housing across Britain soon began to heat up. After about 3 days many houses or buildings without AC soon started to become most uncomfortable. Sleeping soon became stupidly uncomfortable despite highs only maxing out around 80 and nights that never stayed warmer than 70 degrees. The heat becomes trapped within houses here as we we're never in need of AC. Therefore the heat in this country can and does become uncomfortable and even dangerous at times. Most resorts in in Med, USA, and others hotter latitudes are equipt and use to warmer weather and therefore better equipted.India and sub-continental Asia WeatherVagaries of the WeatherBy Rajesh KapadiaReadings as on 22nd. May: IT's 51c !!
Highest in Asia:Larkana (Pakistan): 51c, Sibi (Pakistan) 50c, Jacobabad: 50c.Incidently,the evening humidity in Larkana was 5%.
Highest in India: Ganganagar: 48.9c,Hissar: 48.0c,Jaisalmer:47.7c, Kota:46.7c.
Hottest Night:Jodhpur:31.0c, Ahamdabad:30.6c.
That's Hot ! Its the desert state of Rajasthan and adjoining Pakistan that is bearing the brunt of very gruelling heat! Highs of 51c in Pakistan and 48.9c in India now,is hopefully going to shape up the "tardy" development of the seasonal low in Rajasthan/Sindh. A core pressure of 998 hpa is now prevailing, but its been the same since "Laila's" formation. Forecasts show it the pressure coming in the region down to 996 hpa, by the 25th.of May.
Read FullWhat's Reaching Today's Blogs?Due to technical difficulties, news has been unable to load in this segment!
Daily Extremes returning soon!Today's US ExtremesCourtesy of the USA TodayHigh: N/A
Low: 19 degrees at Stanley, ID
Today's UK ExtremesCourtesy of the UK Met OfficeHigh: 81 degrees at Woodford (Greater Manchester)
Low: 42 degrees at Katesbridge (Co Down)
Today's Extremes here at my houseHigh: 76 degrees (generally cloudless skies and blazing sunshine)
Low: N/A
Thanks for reading.
-Mark
