Heatwave to last until mid-July in England and Wales, say forecasters

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/jul/04/heatwave-july-england-wales-forecasters

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It is time to dust off the summer wardrobe and stock up on the sun protection as forecasters are predicting a prolonged spell of hot weather in England and Wales lasting at least into mid-July.

Temperatures in the south-east are set to soar to the highest so far this year, promising dry and hot weather for the Wimbledon men's singles final. But people in Scotland will have to rely on Andy Murray to bring them sunshine as they, along with Northern Ireland residents, are expected to miss out on the warm weather.

The Met Office spokeswoman Lindsay Mears said: "It's set to be quite a prolonged period of fine weather, well into next week and into next weekend. The south-east is where we are expecting the real hot spot to be. Sadly, Scotland will not really see it at all and it will be a bit showery in the north-west from time to time but they will see some of the sunnier weather. The rest of the country should be basking in lovely weather well into next week."

Mears said temperatures would reach close to 30C in the south-east, with 29C predicted on Sunday, compared to a July average of 19.4C. The hottest temperature of the year so far was 27.2, recorded at Heathrow last Sunday.

By contrast, in Scotland temperatures are expected to be around the July average for that part of the UK, which is a not particularly warm 17C. The Met Office usually shies away from making firm predictions beyond the next few days, with memories of its infamous prediction of a "barbecue summer" in 2009, when it was more soggy than sizzling, still raw.

But it said it was more confident in the detail for next week than usual because of strong signals that high pressure is set to dominate the weather into next week.

Mears said the high pressure was a result of "the jet stream [being] where it's supposed to be at this time of year. It's over the north, between Scotland and Iceland. When it gets into that position it gives fine weather to the south of the country."

Unfortunately it is not such good news for Scotland as it guides rain-bearing Atlantic low pressure systems off to the north of the country, meaning the far north-west of the UK gets glancing blows from these systems.