Britain is once again stuck in a period of ‘anticyclonic gloom’ weather this week after conditions became grey and gloomy but settled following three storms in a fortnight.
Dull and dry conditions with low cloud are dominating the weather as high pressure traps cloud over the UK after 96mph Storm Darragh caused chaos last weekend, quickly behind Storm Conall on November 27 and Storm Bert on November 22 to 25.
Conditions will remain cloudy for many areas of the country today with patchy drizzle and hill fog, especially in central and eastern parts – although brighter skies could be seen in the far West and across much of Scotland, where fog could linger all day.
Tomorrow will be another cloudy day with patchy light rain and drizzle, while a band of rain with freshening winds will arrive across northern Scotland in the afternoon.
The situation is resulting in ‘anticyclonic gloom’ or ‘dunkelflaute’ – a German word with no direct translation, but which roughly means ‘dark doldrums’ or ‘dark wind lull’.
It comes after a similar dreary period in early November when England had only 130 minutes of sunshine and no meaningful rainfall during the first ten days of the month.
Meanwhile the Met Office revealed it was still too early to forecast a white Christmas, adding that they will only start to have an idea about the chances on the week before.
Forecasters said ‘many outcomes remain possible, and it won’t be until much closer to the time that we can say with any more certainty’ about the likelihood of snow.
The City of London skyline and financial district is shrouded in gloomy weather again today
Looking at today, Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said: ‘The anticyclonic gloom many of us have been under for a little while will continue through the next day or so.
‘We call it this because we’re under high pressure, an anticyclone – and whilst this brings settled weather, in this instance it’s kind of trapping the cloud and keeping it over us, which is why things are pretty grey for the time being.
‘And with that we will see some outbreaks of drizzly rain as we go through the rest of today, through into tomorrow as well. There is a front coming down from the north as we go through later tomorrow, that won’t bring a huge amount of rain to many places.
‘It’s actually a feature that arrives later in the weekend, more so Sunday, that’s likely to bring something a bit more unsettled. So we can expect some heavier rains some stronger winds as we go into the beginning of next week.’
The outlook for Saturday is for slightly brighter conditions, with some sunny spells and showers – although it will again be cloudier on Sunday and into Monday, with gusty winds and outbreaks of rain.
Looking further ahead, the Met Office has a long-range forecast for the period between December 16 and 25, which does include a chance of ‘hill snow in the North’.
It states: ‘Around the middle of next week, low pressure may dominate, with a spell of mild, wet and windy weather for most places.
‘Thereafter, while high pressure may try and build at times, especially in the South late in the period, the more likely scenario is for an unsettled regime to dominate.
‘Spells of wind and rain, perhaps with some hill snow in the North, are likely, followed by blustery showers, these most frequent and perhaps wintry at times in the North West. Temperatures will vary around average, with oscillations between colder and milder interludes.’
Addressing the prospect of a white Christmas, the Met Office said in an update yesterday that ‘will it be a white Christmas?’ is ‘definitely the question we get asked the most’, sometimes months in advance.
But it said: ‘The short and disappointing answer is; it is still too early to say. It’s not until the week before Christmas that we should start to have an idea about the chances of seeing any flurries on the big day.’
The Met Office also said that its long-range forecast ‘gives a broad description of the weather that is likely to be affecting the UK’.
A similar dreary period of ‘anticyclonic gloom’ in early November saw England have only 130 minutes of sunshine during the first ten days of the month. London is pictured on November 8
Snow-covered fields near Cheltenham are seen from Queens Wood on Boxing Day 2010, which was the last Christmas to have a widespread covering of snow across the UK
It added: ‘It gives an indication of ‘how’ the weather might change or be different from normal – like getting warmer, colder, wetter or drier for example – but it doesn’t go into too much detail as the story is always changing.’
In addition, the Met Office said: ‘Whilst our long-range forecast gives a prediction as to what the weather may be doing over the Christmas period, we have to acknowledge that many outcomes remain possible, and it won’t be until much closer to the time that we can say with any more certainty.’
The Met Office says an official white Christmas in the UK simply needs an observer or an automatic weather station to report a single snowflake falling on December 25.
Since 1960, around half of the years have seen at least 5 per cent of the station network record snow falling on Christmas Day.
A widespread covering of snow on the ground is defined where more than 40 per cent of stations in the UK reported snow on the ground at 9am.
This has only happened four times since 1960 – in 1981, 1995, 2009 and 2010.
