Unusual conditions bring both heatwave and intense storms in UK

Unusual meteorological conditions in the UK led to the topsy-turvy weather at the weekend, which saw torrential storms in the North contrast with bright sunshine and near-record temperatures in the South.

A mass of very warm air from south of the Azores moved up over Britain late last week, bringing with it intense heat and humidity unusual for the UK in June.

But on Sunday this was destabilised in the north by a cold front coming in from the Atlantic, and thunderstorms of an almost tropical intensity resulted.

Many places had more than an inch of rain, while at Hawnby in North Yorkshire, two inches of rain - or the normal amount for a month - fell in an hour. Flash flooding was the almost inevitable consequence.

"The conditions were exceptional," said Steve Randall, national forecaster at the UK Met Office HQ in Exeter.

"You might go several summers without seeing them again. But they could become more frequent with global warming."

On Sunday London had its hottest June day since the blazing summer of 1976, with a high of 33C while Sunday night was the second hottest ever recorded for the month in the capital: the temperature did not drop below 21.7C.

While not touching these peaks, the hot weather is likely to continue in the south of England for several days, Mr Randall said, but Scotland and Northern Ireland are likely to see much more cloud.

Although the Met Office supercomputers cannot make reliable weathers predictions for more than about a week ahead, people who like a bet show no such reservations, and are already gambling that 2005 will be another sizzling summer.

Looking back in 2003, it is now clear that the smashing of the British record was an even more remarkable event than it seemed at the time.

It took place during the great western European heatwave of the first two weeks of August, whose unprecedented temperatures claimed the lives of more than 30,000 elderly people, and are now attributed by climate scientists directly to global warming.

The previous UK record temperature was 37.1C and on 10 August this was broken decisively when the temperature at Gravesend hit 38.1C - a leap of a full degree centigrade.

But weeks later it was realised that at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent, where the thermometer is only checked monthly, the mercury had hit 38.5C - which is the official British record.

This difference from the previous record of 1.4C is the most enormous leap, and should give pause for thought to anyone who thinks global warming is not happening.

- INDEPENDENT