Electricity North West weather watch - June
Electricity North West weather watch - June
Today marks the start of the meteorological summer and that mysterious object in the sky has made an appearance in the North West over the past month.
The weather can have a big impact on the local power network. We work hard to make the network as resilient as possible by investing more than £130m every year, but there are some things we can’t control.
Although we’ve enjoyed some sunshine last month and hopefully a lot more in June, it wasn’t as calm back in June 2015 when we worked hard to restore power to 4,000 customers in Cumbria, Lancashire and Peak District after severe gales of around 60mph in the region caused damage to the power network.
Meteorologists Matt Dobson and Tom Whittaker from MeteoGroup are here to tell us what the weather has in store for us for June.
Look back: May
As the meteorological spring draws to a close, the North West has experienced a rather changeable month in May. Areas of high pressure, especially during the first half of the month, provided dry and settled conditions, while short periods of low pressure dominance gave some spells of rain. After a drier than normal April, rivers, reservoirs and our gardens welcomed the change to some heavy (but short-lived) rainfall during mid-month. An active and slow moving frontal boundary gave some impressive 24 hour rainfall totals across the region at this time. The highest total in the 24 hour period was at Levens Hall in Cumbria where 28mm fell. However, besides the deluge around the 15th, there has not been too much more rainfall since.
Through most of the month, temperatures were fluctuating close to the May average. However, during the last full week of May a large area of high pressure intensified across the near continent and this fed in some very warm and humid air from as far south as Spain and Morocco. This weather pattern is known to meteorologists as a ‘Spanish Plume’. Temperatures peaked in the high 20Cs on Friday 26th May, with 28C at Blackpool airport. The warmth came to an end during the course of the Bank Holiday weekend, as high pressure slipped away to the east. The weather was most dramatic on Saturday 27th in the North West, with slow moving torrential downpours and thunderstorms during the afternoon.
Winds were generally light when high pressure was dominant. However, there were a few breezy days, particularly around the 15th/16th, when wind gusts between 30-45 mph occurred widely, with up to 60mph recorded on the Pennines and Cumbrian Fells.
Look ahead: June
There will be a much more unsettled spell of weather as we head through the first ten days of June, particularly across northern and western parts of the UK.
The high pressure that brought us the fine, dry and warm conditions in late May, will remain well away over south-eastern parts of Europe, as a vigorous westerly jet stream develops over the north Atlantic. This jet stream will drive a series of deepening low pressure systems towards our shores, leading to spells of wet and occasionally windy weather. However, the sea surface temperatures to the west and south of the UK are higher than they should be for early June, so this will tend to keep air temperatures on the milder side of average, especially at night.
Our forecasters have been analysing the global weather patterns over the last few days, and it seems that cold and unsettled weather over eastern parts of Canada and the north-eastern USA at the moment will contribute to this stronger jet stream and unsettled UK weather in early June.
However, don't pack away the shorts, shades and sun cream at the back of the cupboard just yet! There are encouraging signs that during the second half of June, high pressure will have more influence over the UK's weather once more, with the likelihood of some dry, fine and warm conditions returning.
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