A Mainly Settled EquinoxAdded : Sunday at 12:15 The Autumn Equinox arrives this week but, rather than heralding an immediate plunge into autumnal weather, high pressure looks set to dominate across much of Britain and Ireland. After the rather changeable weather of recent days, pressure will continue to build from the south with the jet stream displaced well to the north, allowing a much quieter spell of weather to become established across many areas :-
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Monday and Tuesday should bring plenty of dry weather with variable amounts of cloud and some decent spells of September sunshine, particularly across England and Wales. Scotland and Ireland will generally see more cloud, especially towards western coasts and hills, with the odd patch of rain or drizzle possible as weak weather fronts brush around the northern flank of the high. Temperatures will also be on the rise and it should feel pleasantly warm in the sunshine, particularly across southern and central parts of England where values will be comfortably above the seasonal average :-
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The Autumn Equinox occurs during the early hours of Wednesday, marking the astronomical beginning of autumn across the Northern Hemisphere. This is when the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading southwards and, although commonly described as the point at which day and night are equal, daylight actually remains a little longer than 12 hours across Britain and Ireland for another few days.
And high pressure looks reluctant to give way as we move beyond the Equinox. There may be a little more cloud at times with weak frontal systems occasionally trying to make some progress into northern and western areas, bringing a little rain, but across much of England and Wales the emphasis remains firmly on predominantly dry weather :-
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So while the calendar moves firmly into astronomical autumn this week, the weather may have something of a late summer feel about it, particularly towards the south and east.
METEOROLOGIST : BARBER |
