It’s been a miserable spring so far for Britain with flooding, thunderstorms and chilly temperatures – and no prolonged period of warm weather since last year.
But forecasters said today that while conditions will continue to be cool for at least the next five to ten days, there is now an increased chance of hot spells this summer.
This year’s spring has been far wetter and cooler than average – with the Met Officesaying about 75 per cent of the season’s average rainfall would normally fall by this point. However, the country hit the expected spring total a full three weeks early.
Forecasters also said the average maximum daily temperature for March, April and May up to last week was 10.96C (51.7F), which is 1.17C (34.1F) lower than average.
Temperatures have so far just about got above the 21C (70F) mark this year – hitting a 2023 UK high of 22.6C (72.7F) on Saturday – compared to 28C (82F) by this point last year.
There has also been a stark contrast to the fabulous weather in spring 2020 when the first coronavirus lockdown began, as Britain enjoyed its sunniest April on record.
Poor spring comes after UK has been stuck in jet stream’s path
The Met Office has suggested that the lack of warm spring sunshine this year is because the UK has been near-constantly in the path of the jet stream – a core of strong winds about five to seven miles above the surface of the Earth which blows from west to east.
This has brought what has been described as a ‘conveyor belt’ of low pressure weather systems.
The unusual conditions have also been put down to a completely random, ‘natural variation’ of the jet stream – which is also weak this year.
This weakness means there is a great chance of weather systems hitting Britain, because its path is in ‘waves’ rather than a straight line, and therefore cover a bigger area.