The period from mid-July to early August is generally regarded as "high summer" by meteorologists as this is the time of year when we are most likely to see the highest temperatures in any one calendar year. Of course, this is no set rule and every year is different, so what is 2020 looking like?
In short, there's no indication of anything significant in terms of heat coming our way in the next week that will exceed the hot temperatures that we experienced at the end of June. However, having said that, it will be turning warmer at times towards the south and east of the country whilst the north and west is always that bit cooler and more susceptible to changeable conditions moving in off the Atlantic - an all too typical set-up in many ways. By next weekend though there are some hints of a warmer feed developing from the south but this is just a hint at this stage.
The Azores High has been a prominent feature over the last few weeks and it looks set to remain so in the coming days. It is trying to throw a ridge towards Britain and Ireland, such as is the case this weekend, but the Atlantic jet stream never really relents enough to allow this ridge to develop into a blocking area of high pressure over or close to the country to bring a sustained settled spell of weather.
The coming days see ridges trying to influence the south of the country, bringing warmer and sunnier conditions at times, but equally frontal systems will be moving in from off the Atlantic to bring cooler and damper conditions to the north and west in particular. At times, these fronts will sink south-eastwards, weakening as they do so to bring some of that cooler Atlantic air in before the ridge builds back in to help temperatures recover. This ebbing and flowing looks like dominating for much of the coming week so whilst there will be some pleasant summer days on offer, especially in the south, there will also be some cloudier and cooler periods, especially in the northwest.
METEOROLOGIST: BARBER
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