Saturday 6th June
Although there were many hours of broken sunshine on Friday, especially in the morning and early afternoon, the thermometer struggled to reach a maximum of 17.2C at 14.11, being 3.5C below average, before cloud began to edge in from the west ahead of the next depression. During the evening cloud thickened with the first rain falling just after midnight, totalling 4.0mm by 08.00. The low of 10.7C was just above average, +0.5C, logged just after midnight, before the very low and thick cloud arrived.
Saturday arrived with the nasty low pressure system centred over Wales that has brought, and will continue for much of the day, low, thick cloud, rainfall on and off all day, with gusty winds. The barometric pressure at 08.00 read 1003/7mb and falling rapidly, as I write this report, as the depression tracks across central England.
The jet stream is currently speeding across the Atlantic pushing low pressure systems towards and across the UK. The forecast track of the jet steam is for this to continue all next week with depressions arriving across or just to the north of the UK that will continue the unsettled weather up to next weekend. The winds will continue from a southwesterly quadrant all week. There are indications, for the following week, that the track will begin to loop higher above the UK thus raising the possibility of warmer and dryer weather, but a week is a long time in weather forecasting for any certainty.
Met Office weather forecast for June
In its forecast for June 8 to June 17, the Met Office says “showers or longer spells of rain” are on the cards, with the wettest conditions coming in the north-west, while the south-east is expected to remain driest.
Towards the end of the period, higher pressure and more settled conditions could become more prevalent – particularly in the south. “Temperatures are likely to be near normal overall,” the Met Office adds.
The Met Office forecast for June 18 to July 2 says that, at the start of the period, high pressure should bring “drier conditions to most parts of the UK” – although showers remain possible. “Winds will mostly be light with temperatures probably above normal,” it adds.
“Towards the end of June, low pressure may begin to have more of an influence, especially across the south where heavy showers and thunderstorms become more probable. It may also become hot in parts of the south.”