Has summer finished? August has blown in like autumn, with a battering of wind, rain and disappointing temperatures. It looks much the same today. After a brief respite tomorrow, more rain spreads in on Monday.
Much of the blame for this wretched weather can be directed at the jet stream. In June and July the jet stream was sweeping farther north, allowing large parts of the UK to be bathed in warm sunshine and bursts of sensational heat. That is now a distant memory, and in mid-July the jet stream shifted farther south with wind and rain, and it has been running much the same way since. All of which lends some credibility to St Swithin’s Day, on July 15, when folklore declares that rain on that day will lead to 40 more days of wet weather.
Around the middle of next week there may be a chance of high pressure spreading up from the south bringing a decent spell of sunshine. Strangely, this change in fortune will be from the remnants of a tropical storm called Emily. This storm caught forecasters by surprise when it sprang into life in the Gulf of Mexico and swept through Florida on Monday with heavy rains, strong gusting winds and some flooding, including in parts of Miami. The storm swept into the Atlantic, where its remnants have become wrapped up in an Atlantic weather system. This may improve our weather by helping to nudge the jet stream farther north, leaving the UK drier, especially in the south. The northwest of the UK may have more in the way of sunshine and showers.
As for the rest of August, it does not look as if we will see anything like a heatwave again, but there will be spells of warm sunshine. The big question is how wet it will be, and that is still uncertain.
The weather in the UK is very different from that in southern Europe. The jet stream is running around a stubborn block of high pressure that has brought scorching heat and an intense drought.
