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This is the official blog of the Met Office news team, intended to provide journalists and bloggers with the latest weather, climate science and business news and information from the Met Office.
The blog will post latest news releases and related content, news diary and information supporting news stories already in the media.
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- Here is the latest #rainfall radar - a wet commute home for some... ☔️☔️☔️ https://t.co/Zeqa7aywFv 39 minutes ago
- The #rain band will continue to push southeastwards during #RushHour so take care on your journey home 🚗💦 https://t.co/xWS41QJLbn 2 hours ago
- #Rain has been slowly moving southeastwards today 💦 bringing cool conditions in Northern Ireland and western Scotla… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 hours ago
- If you're going to #RIAT19 here's an overview of what to expect from the weather over the course of the event ⛅️🌦️✈️ https://t.co/jJwYSyfkPK 3 hours ago
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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a swarm of flying ants! 😮 . Normally, our radar network only detects rain or snow. This morning, large blobs of blue appeared over parts of southern and eastern England – despite the weather being dry. . So, why does the radar detect flying ants and not other insect or even birds? . Radio waves emitted from an antenna travel out at the speed of light, only bouncing back when they encounter an object. When radar was first used during the Second World War, we were trying to detect enemy targets and not rain or snow. On a clear day, radar could quickly tell us the position of aircraft in the sky. On a wet day, echoes visible from the radar signal would only tell us about the weather. . Since the 1950s, radar has told us more and more about the weather as it happens – from rain to snow and from light drizzle to supercell thunderstorms. . The UK is now covered by 15 radar sites, collecting data at 1 km resolution every five minutes. . However, anything from birds and insects in the sky to hills and buildings on the ground can and have interfered with the vertical radar signal and returned false data. . Since a recent upgrade of the UK radar network, we now send two radar beams at once using a technology known as dual-polarisation. . One beam travels horizontally, one vertically, allowing us to build a 3D picture of any objects in the sky. There are now thresholds in place that allow us to discount larger objects such as birds or flies. Flying ants are so small, they slip under the threshold. But if the threshold were smaller, we’d miss some of the rain or snow in the sky. . . #flyingants #radar #weird #satellite #uk #ukweather #wednesdaywisdomMeanwhile, over on Twitter 👀 . . #worldemojidayTake a look at this beautiful (almost) full moon pic taken on Monday night 😍 . The full moon on Tuesday night will look quite different, if you’re lucky enough to spot it. Clear-skies-permitting, a partial lunar eclipse will be visible in the skies above the UK. This occurs when the Earth moves between the sun and the moon but only part of the moon’s visible surface enters the dark part of the Earth’s shadow, the central region called the umbra. . The best time to spot Tuesday night’s partial eclipse will be between 10 pm and 11 pm and, with clear spells expected for much of the UK, there’s a good chance of spotting this lunar spectacle. . Massive thanks to @emmamcdsmith for sharing this with us 🙌🏻 . . #moon #fullmoon #clearskies #umbra #ukweather #lunar #spectacleA great #loveukweather photo sent to us from @gbc123 earlier today ☀️ Here is your weather outlook: Headline: Largely dry overnight, sunshine and scattered showers Tuesday. This Evening and Tonight: Fine and dry for most this evening and overnight with long clear spells, and some short lived fog patches developing in rural areas around dawn. Cloudier across Northern Ireland and western Scotland, with a few showers likely after midnight. Tuesday: A warm day with sunny spells, but the rising temperatures may trigger scattered/isolated heavy showers, particularly across Northern Ireland, southern and eastern Scotland, perhaps Wales and the Midlands. Outlook for Wednesday to Friday: Cloudy and wet in the northwest on Wednesday, sunny spells with showers elsewhere. Sunny spells and some heavy showers on Thursday. Turning windy on Friday with longer spells of rain in places.This is a beautifully moody photograph taken by @prc_photo on the Northumberland coast today. We could see skies like this again at times during the coming week, after a largely fine and bright day tomorrow. Here are the details ⤵️ . Headline: Dry with warm sunny spells. Today: Mostly dry with variable cloud and warm sunny spells for most. The best of the sunshine in the north and west. Perhaps a few isolated showers in the southwest. Feeling warm in the sunshine. Tonight: Mostly dry with variable cloud and clear spells, these mainly in the west where it will feel chilly with a few fog patches possible. Isolated light showers along eastern coasts. Monday: Fine and dry with early cloud in the east breaking up to give sunny spells for most. Isolated showers possible in the west and feeling warm in the sunshine. Outlook for Tuesday to Thursday: Some heavy showers in the northwest on Tuesday, extending to other areas through midweek. Driest in the southeast. Warm at first, but cooling down on Thursday.It was a beautiful start to the day for many. If you weren’t up and about early enough, thanks to @IrishPixel for capturing this spectacular dawn image 🌄 Will there be more opportunities to capture photos like this in the coming days, or is there a change on the way? Find out below ⬇️ UK 5 DAY WEATHER FORECAST Saturday 13 Jul - Wednesday 17 Jul Headline: Mostly dry with some clear spells tonight. A little cooler. This Evening and Tonight: Daytime showers fading, albeit quite slowly, with perhaps some showery rain across east and southeastern parts of England overnight. Some clear spells elsewhere, but with some low cloud drifting in off the North Sea into eastern, southern and central parts. Sunday: Mostly dry with variable cloud and warm sunny spells for most. The best of the sunshine in the north and west. Perhaps a few isolated showers in the southwest. Outlook for Monday to Wednesday: Fine, dry and warm across most parts of the UK at first. Turning increasingly unsettled towards midweek, mainly in the north and west with heavy showers. Driest in the southeast.Archives
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Met Office News- A cold and bright Bank Holiday weekend 2 May, 2019
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Author Archives: Met Office Press Office
Summer temperature 2018 – the ‘new normal’?
The Met Office Chief Scientist, Professor Stephen Belcher, appeared on BBC Newsnight on Tuesday evening to talk about current extreme temperatures and climate change. The interviewer Emily Maitlis asked if the current hot temperatures we are seeing can be considered the … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office in the Media, Met Office News
Tagged 2018 summer, Arctic, climate, climate change, climate science, CMIP5, CRUTEM4, global temperatures, global warming, Grantham Institute, heatwave, Imperial College London, Japan, Japan temperatures, Jet stream, Met Office, Met Office Hadley Centre, Professor Brian Hoskins, Professor Stephen Belcher, record, UK heatwave, Universty of Reading
5 Comments
Medal for Met mathematician
A leading Met Office climate scientist has been awarded the Copernicus Medal, a prestigious international award for pioneering research. Professor Adam Scaife, Head of Monthly to Decadal Prediction at the Met Office – who is also Professor of applied mathematics … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office News
2 Comments
The summer so far
As we are all aware this summer has been hot and dry so far and there has been much speculation comparing the season so far to record-breaking summers of the past. But has it been as hot and dry as … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office News
Tagged dry, England, Environment Agency, forecast, heatwave, rainfall, record, Scotland, statistics, summer, temperature, UK, weather forecasting
1 Comment
Leaving no stone unturned in hurricane preparedness
With hurricanes developing in the Atlantic Basin, Gavin Iley, Met Office Head of International Crisis Management & Resilience, provides a personal account of how the Met Office works tirelessly to ensure its hurricane advice is ‘useful, useable and used’. Earlier … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office News
Tagged Atlantic hurricane season, hurricane, Met Office, tropical cyclone, tropical storm
An update on a record breaking June
On Monday 2nd July we released our provisional climate statistics for June: an exceptional month resulting in a number of new climate records, including the warmest June on record for Wales and Northern Ireland. A provisional national high temperature record … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office News
Tagged climate science, Met Office, national climate information centre, Stevenson screen, summer
5 Comments
A warm and dry June so far
As we reach the mid-point in June, statistics for the UK as a whole show that the weather has been warm and dry for many with temperatures over 1 degree above average so far and rainfall just 33% of the … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office News
4 Comments
Will summer be a washout or a scorcher?
The Met Office has recently released its contingency planners’ outlook covering the period for June, July and August, with some sources suggesting this is predicting a summer heatwave. But what does this early look at what might be in store … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office News
Tagged England, forecast, heatwave, Met Office, statistics, summer, summer weather, sunshine, temperature, weather forecast
2 Comments
Met Office temperature records – what do we monitor and how far do they go back?
May saw more than its normal share of fine sunny days and notably high temperatures, reaching a peak of 28.7 Celsius at Northolt on 7th May to coincide with the early May bank holiday. That was just one place on … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office News
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Cyclone Mekunu closes in on Oman
In the two months prior to the onset of the Indian monsoon in early June, cyclones occasionally form in the North Indian Ocean. This year so far has seen the formation of two cyclones in the region – Sagar and … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office News
Tagged cyclone, Indian Meteorological Department, Met Office, Met Office storms, weather forecasting
A spring freeze and a bank holiday to please
It’s a testament to how often British Bank Holidays disappoint that, in the 40 years since it was introduced, temperatures had never exceeded 23.6 C on the early May Bank Holiday Monday. At least, not until this year, says Aidan … Continue reading
Posted in Met Office News
