Signs Of AutumnAdded : Saturday at 12:43 We're into September now which means, meteorologically speaking, we are into the first month of autumn. Initial statistics for Summer 2017 show that it will go down as being slightly warmer and wetter than normal, although it was very much a summer of two halves.
The warmth of the second half of June and early July helped the 1st June to 31st August period to come in at 0.4°C above normal. However it was the wettest summer since 2012 with rainfall around 30% above normal on average although there were some wide regional variations.
The last few days have seen much cooler nights developing and there has even been some ground frost around in prone spots. So what do the coming days have in store?
Let's take a look and we'll start with the forecast synoptic chart for Sunday:
Frontal systems are pushing in from the west bringing a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain with them but note the area of high pressure (1027mb) over Scandinavia. This blocking high is set to slow the eastwards progression of those fronts into the early part of next week, and even by Tuesday those fronts are still lingering:
They will be come weaker with the rain turning lighter and more patchy at times, but waves running along those fronts will bring some heavier spells of rain, especially to the northwest later on Monday if the latest GFS ► run verifies:
These fronts do finally look like clearing to the east by the middle of the week but if we look at the forecast synoptic chart a rather mobile pattern is setting up with a strong Azores High in place and low pressure to the north leaving the country under brisk westerlies:
All quite typical for early autumn but probably not something that we have come to expect from early September based on recent years. We're then watching next weekend closely for the potential of a more significant low pressure system moving in bringing rain and gales with it (low confidence at the moment though):
Welcome autumn!
METEOROLOGIST: BARBER |