The hurricane season in the Tropical North Atlantic frequently plays a role in dictating the state of play with the UK’s dominant weather patterns, but with various stories circulating in the media about ex-Hurricane Larry’s influence over the forecast, we thought we’d clear up the current picture from across the Atlantic Ocean.  

Hurricane Larry struck North America last week as a Category 1 hurricane and brought widespread disruption to Newfoundland and Greenland before moving out to sea. The breakdown of Larry late on Friday led to some significant uncertainty in the forecasts for the UK, as conditions in the west of the Atlantic often help to drive the weather we see in the UK. It’s this uncertainty that led to some reports of warmer weather to come, but that isn’t the case on this occasion as Larry’s influence on our weather weakens from now on.  

Ex-Hurricane Larry’s influence over the UK weather is somewhat confined to helping to keep our current unsettled weather pattern in place and fairly slow moving. The remnants of Larry are now loosely aligned with a low pressure to the south of Greenland and is set to have little impact on the medium and long term forecasts for the UK.  

As the UK’s current weather pattern develops later in the week, some warmer air will be drawn in from the south, but this will be associated with some thick cloud and, at times, heavy rain. This isn’t linked to the remnants of Larry in the North of the Atlantic.  

Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist Adam Thornhill said, “One of the main impacts of ex-Hurricane Larry on the UK weather has been the uncertainty it brought to the forecast over the past weekend. Hurricanes that affect North America often play a role in the UK’s weather when they move into the North Atlantic.  However, the way Larry transitioned from a Hurricane into a North Atlantic low, means its impacts on the UK’s weather systems were and are limited to holding some of our unsettled weather in place into the middle of this week.  

“Ex-Hurricane Larry no longer exists, but the low which has some legacy ‘Larry’ air, has moved to the south of Greenland and is set to have little impact on us in the UK as it continues to lose intensity and move into the Arctic Sea.  Although there may be some warmer air moving across the southeast of England through Tuesday and Wednesday, any temperature rise is likely to be subdued with some thick cloud and rain at times. Some sunny spells are most likely on Thursday, where temperatures in the East and Southeast of England may reach the mid-twenties before another band of rain moves east across the UK later Thursday and through Friday.” 

The high pressure moving into the south from Thursday could bring temperatures to the low or mid 20s in the southeast where there’s the best of the sunshine, but cloud will likely subdue temperatures in other areas before some more unsettled weather moves in from the west.  

Get the latest forecast on the Met Office website.