(Updated by 1st of each month)

Issued: Monday 26th July 2010
Duty forecaster: Simon Keeling & Captain Bob

"Summer's lease hath all too short a date." - William Shakespeare

‘Make hay while the sun shines’ may be good advice as it looks as if August may start okay but a decline into something more unsettled may not be too far away once the month turns?
Fine and summery weather at the beginning of the month gives way to rather more unsettled conditions across the whole of the UK, high pressure handing over the baton to low pressure through the second week which then characterises the middle and latter stages of the month.
High pressure does look as though it’ll reassert an influence through the final week, a return to warmer and more settled weather as summer draws to a close perhaps.

*31/07/10 – 06/08/10*
High pressure should be straddling across the UK, the flow mainly light and variable in direction although as the centre of the anticyclone drifts slow eastward into the near continent a more southerly to south-easterly looks likely to develop.
Long sunny spells for most areas and it’ll be warm to very warm for a time as air is drawn into the UK from off the continent, coastal areas will be cooler and fresher with some patchy low cloud at times, sea breezes perhaps triggering some inland heavy possibly thundery showers during the late afternoon.
A more general area of thundery showers will be developing through western and south-western areas as a breakdown edges erratically eastward through the latter stages of the period.

*07/08/10 – 14/08/10*
High pressure looks set to be sitting to the east or southeast of the UK and combined with lower pressure to the west or southwest a general southerly to south-easterly flow will be covering the country, so on the warm and humid side everywhere.
Thundery showers grouped over western and south-western Britain look set to organise themselves into a large area of thundery showers as pressure falls generally and high pressure to the east declines, the outlook form hereon largely unsettled.
Low pressure developing to the west or southwest looks set to become the controlling feature through the remainder of the period, all areas becoming unsettled and perhaps windier through western Britain, cooler and much fresher too as the Atlantic influences increase.

*15/08/10 – 21/08/10*
Low pressure sits in control of the pattern over the UK through the whole period, all areas rather unsettled with showers or longer spells of rain at times, feeling cooler than recently with stronger winds affecting much of the country from time to time.
The middle of the period may see the onset of a mainly westerly flow from off the Atlantic, this carrying a mixture of sunny spells and bands of showers through all areas, the heaviest and most frequent of which will affect north-western and western Britain, eastern and sheltered areas drier.
A rise in pressure across southern Britain may see England and Wales becoming drier as a north to south split develops, showers running in on a mainly westerly flow, high pressure established to the southwest.

*22/08/10 – 27/08/10*
The mainly westerly flow looks set to continue as the pressure pattern sees lower pressure coming in off the Atlantic through all areas; therefore the outlook is mainly mixed for all of us.
There is a hint that the unsettled theme may be reinforced through the middle and latter stages of the period as low pressure gets its act together and pushes rather windy and wet weather through all areas, perhaps a distinct ‘autumnal’ theme to late summer.
It’ll be feeling rather cool for late summer everywhere, some recovery in both temperatures and fortunes as the period comes to a close, low pressure moving away and a rise in pressure over southern and south-western Britain.

*28/09/10 – 03/09/10*
A we ‘move over the bridge’ from summer into autumn, the pattern looks set to settle as low pressure moves away and pressure begins to recover, the prospect of drier a brighter conditions for all of us, a spell of pleasantly warm weather developing.