The weird British weather. How we love it.

We’ve seen some pretty extreme types of weather in 2018 and its just fed into that good old British past time of complaining and fretting about what the weather is going to do. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise to us living where we live that the weather can get up to some crazy extremes. It certainly means that when you live in an area that is subject to  these extremes then Boiler Installation Forest of Dean or other mountains and hill areas is a must. Check out http://greenplanetheating.org/ for a check-up. One other thing we like to do is compare new weather to older extremes and this year has been no different.

Why our weather fluctuates so much

The reason we have such fluctuations in weather is that for most part our weather follows a pretty stable pattern of mild and wet weather. We are also in the path of the Gulf stream. This brings milder warmer waters up from the Gulf of Mexico and this keeps the real cold weather at bay. As we live right next to the Atlantic Ocean this usually brings in the mild and wet weather as the cyclonic build of cloud is soon blown onto us as there is nothing, apart from Ireland to break it up. So, if the wind is blowing from the west and south its going to be mild and wet. However, we also don’t have anything in between us and the Arctic apart from Iceland and a bit of Norway so if the North wind doth blow we may get snow if it combines with the south-westerly we might get snow. This is also true if we get an Easterly wind from Russia and Siberia. The final weather effect is if we get hot air from Europe and Africa this usually brings about a heatwave or an Indian summer.

Memorable extreme weather events

What are the effects of all this on our social memory. Well, if I have to hear about the Winter of 1963 and the Drought of 1976 from my elderly mother any more it will be a day too soon. The winter of ’63 was a combination of a strong easterly hitting a northerly Arctic blast. This then got mixed up with a small south west rain laden breeze. Cue snow for 3 Months as the weather front was anchored in. Same with the heatwave a strong African southerly breeze came in and stopped anything coming in off the Atlantic when it combined with the Gulf Stream. The same thing happened with the Beast form the East and our recent Heatwave and Indian summer. It all depends on the wind.

Summary

This article looks at Britain’s love of complaining about its unpredictable weather, explaining that the country’s proximity to the Atlantic and the Gulf Stream usually keeps conditions mild and wet. It recalls extreme events fondly remembered in the national and family memory, such as the winter of 1963 and the drought of 1976.

Questions this article raises

• How has climate change affected the frequency of these weather extremes?
• What other historic UK weather events are as well remembered as 1963 and 1976?
• Why does the Gulf Stream have such a big effect on UK weather?