United Kingdom

UK Weather Overview

The UK is comprised of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Island. Being a relatively small land mass, there isn’t a huge variety of conditions that prevail across each different region- with rain and temperature differences due mainly to varying elevation and latitude. As a whole the entirety of the UK sees a temperate maritime climate and is infamous for its changeable weather, cloudy skies and persistent rainfall. The presence of the North Atlantic on the west coast means that conditions are warmer on the west than on the east. Also, the east shares a coast with the North Sea which has considerably colder surface temperature than the Atlantic, so this plays a role in keeping conditions colder.

Rainfall across the UK is generally high all year round, with the west coast being wetter than the east coast. You can see this quite clearly by comparing the precipitation in Cardiff, which lies to the west in Wales, with London- the capital of England in the east of the UK.

While each city sees persistent rainfall across the year, you can see that Cardiff has significantly higher average precipitation than London. The average precipitation across the year in London sits at about 40-60mm per month, rarely reaching over 70mm, while Cardiff sees, on average 100-200mm of rainfall in the winter months. While November is, on average, the wettest month on average, seeing 64mm of rainfall- by this time in Cardiff average precipitation is averaging into the 90’s for the month.

This is also particularly noticeable in Scotland, where the east coast lies in the rain shadow of the western highlands. The west coast of Scotland sees 265 days of rain across the year, whereas the south east only sees 170 days of rain.

The heavy rainfall has lead to a series of disastrous flooding across the years. The Autumn of 2000 saw a series of exceptional rainfalls across England and Wales that lasted for over 7 weeks and was the heaviest rainfall recorded in 270 years. This lead to flooding which caused 10,000 homes and businesses to be underwater and 11,000 families were forced to evacuate.

The concern is that with human induced climate change that is beginning to affect the worlds weather, heavy rainfall is now becoming more common. The concern has been raised that while major floods would have previously only occurred every 100 years they may now start to happen ever 10 to 20 years.

Scotland lies in the north of the United Kingdom and makes up the northern third of Great Britain. To the south, Scotland shares a border with England and its northern, eastern and western coasts are the oceans and seas of the Atlantic and North Sea. Scotland, as well as the main land also consists of 790 smaller islands, including the Northern Isles.

While temperatures in Scotland are, on average, lower than England, the influence of the Northern Atlantic drift keeps temperatures warmer than other locations that lie at similar latitudes. The North Atlantic Drift is the northern off-shoot of the Gulf Stream which is a current that brings warmer waters up from the Tropics and has the affect of keeping winters considerably mild.

Copenhagen and Moscow each lie at similar latitudes- the January average for Copenhagen and Moscow is zero degrees and -8 degrees respectively, while the January average for Glasgow is 4 degrees.

The weather across most of Scotland is temperate oceanic, and changeable for the entirety of the year. As you move further north, winter conditions get slightly more extreme- as they also do when you move to points of higher altitude. However on the whole in the lowlands of Scotland, the winter maximums sit at about 6 degrees, while the summer maximums generally sit at 18 degrees.

The west coast of Scotland is warmer than the east coast, due to the influence of the Atlantic and the proximity to the Gulf Stream current. In the west also lies the Western Highlands which is the wettest place in all of Scotland- seeing 3000mm precipitation on average across the year. When you combine the high rainfall with the warmer conditions, parts of the west can get particularly humid in the summer months. When you move away from the highlands, precipitation decreases dramatically- seeing an average of 800mm annually. So as you can see precipitation varies dramatically as you move across the high and lowlands of the country.

While England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland rarely experience temperature extremes, there are the random heat waves that pass through the regions- most recently the summer 2006 heat wave which saw temperatures soar into the 30’s in the height of summer.

In terms of summer temperatures, summers are warmer the further south you are and cooler the further north. For example, Edinburgh sees an average daily high in July of 18 degrees, while London sees anaverage high of 22 degrees. In the larger cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham and London, the inner city is affected by the urban warming affect- which results in a 22 degree day feeling like a 27 degree day as the heat is stored up and released from the densely packed buildings.

Many visitors to London, and England as a whole are surprised by the length of the days in the height of summer. Due to its northerly latitude, summer days are much longer, however the flipside means that winter days are considerably short. If you head to the very north of Scotland in the height of summer you will find the days play host to 18 hours of sunlight, and even when the sun does set the night is awash with twilight- for a few days in the midst of summer the sun doesn’t set completely- similar to the ‘midnight sun’ affect in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland.

As a whole, if you want to avoid heavy rainfall stick to the East coast, and if you want warmer temperatures- head further south. The variations in terrain across the entirety of the UK means that temperatures and rainfall will vary slightly from region to region, but generally winters are mild, summers are warm and rain will fall across the year.

See here for average conditions in London, in the south east. For a guide to the English midlands view there conditions for Birmingham here.

Cardiff lies in the west, the capital of Wales, view average conditions here and a general overview of Cardiff, here.

Or see here for conditions typical of the north- in Glasgow, Scotland.

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