North Atlantic Weather UK Administration

The aim of this website is to monitor record and analyse the North Atlantic currents and the Polar Jet Stream as they play their part in providing the UK and Northern Europe with a moderate climate and to give advanced warning of bad weather together with serious research and study into climate change and its possible effects on UK weather in collaboration with the Nordic Countries and the European Union.

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The UK Met Office is situated on Fitzroy Road in the City of Exeter in the beautiful county of Devon and is the United Kingdom’s national weather service. It provides a lot of services including weather forecasts severe weather warnings to the general public and help to parliaments and their members throughout Europe. Its data and information is invaluable to national and international organisations all over the world and it has been working in the field of climate change for more than 20 years. It employs more than 1,800 people worldwide. Get the latest forecast >>

It may not seem like it at times when we suffer droughts across Eastern England or torrential downpours over the Cumbrian Fells or deep snow in the Cairngorms but the volume of water on this planet is constant over time and is continually being recycled by nature. The Water or Hydrologic Cycle maintains life and the ecosystems on the planet. Summary >>

The Water Cycle

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We study the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift very closely and a lot of research is being done behind the scenes as it affects the UK and North-West Europe. The Gulf Stream is one of the strongest ocean currents in the world. It is driven by surface wind patterns and differences in water density. Surface water in the north Atlantic is cooled by winds from the Arctic. It becomes more salty and more dense and sinks to the ocean floor. The cold water then moves towards the equator where it will warm slowly.To replace the cold equator-bound water the Gulf Stream moves warm water from the Gulf of Mexico north into the Atlantic. The Gulf Stream brings warmth to the UK and north-west Europe and is the reason we have mild winters. Without this steady stream of warmth the British Isles winters are estimated to be more than 5 C cooler bringing the average December temperature in London to about 2 C. An insight into the surface currents in the Atlantic >>

The Atlantic is the second largest ocean in the world with a total area of about 106,400,000 sq kilometres. Whilst you have been looking at this website the Atlantic has got wider due to a fault-line in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland Jan Mayen and the Azores are on the ridge. On Tuesday 3rd January 2012 at 21.12 hrs there was a 3.4 mag earthquake on the Reykjanes Ridge in Iceland at a depth of 4.8 km.

Daily Precipitation & Temperature Chart

The Polar Jet Stream is a wide meandering stream of upper air which controls our weather and as it crosses the North Atlantic it may speed up or slow down. It is at this point that high and low pressure systems start to form and move with the jet stream or develop into larger depressions or anticyclones. The polar jet stream circles the Earth over the Northern Hemisphere. During the winter months we also have a polar-night jet stream at a altitude of 30 miles. Current Chart >>

The North Atlantic Oscillation is a climatic phenomenon in the North Atlantic Ocean of fluctuations in the difference of atmospheric pressure at sea level between the Icelandic low and the Azores high. Through east-west oscillation motions of the Icelandic low and the Azores high it controls the strength and direction of westerly winds and storm tracks across the North Atlantic. Unlike the El Niño it is largely of atmospheric nature. It is one of the most important manifestations of climate fluctuations in the North Atlantic and surrounding humid climates. It was discovered in the 1920s by Sir Gilbert Walker. Daily index >>

Newton’s Statute in Grantham

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency of the US Government and was formed on the 3rd October 1970. It provides real time data from satellites which monitor the Earth on storms and weather conditions along the eastern seaboard and near the Great Lakes where low pressure systems start to develop together with a system of buoys.

It also provides data on the surface of the Sun and climate monitoring. Check the sea conditions near you. National Data Buoy Centre >>

Weather Online forecast: A rather cold, frosty start this morning with most areas fine, dry and sunny. Staying dry and quite sunny much of England and Wales this afternoon but more cloudy across Scotland and across Northern Ireland outbreaks of rain will spill in during the afternoon as a front tries to move in from the west. Expect highs of 4 to 6 C.

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Daily UK Jet Stream Forecast. The jet stream is blowing up from west of the Azores to Eastern Greenland where it is veering over Iceland where it is causing a warm front to be formed and down over the UK picking up low pressure systems of 1019-1021 hPa on its way to be Bay of Biscay. From where it is travelling over Spain to again join the main meandering jet stream over Morocco near Casablanca just north of the Canary Islands and the Western Sahara. The jet stream is not blowing over Eastern England this morning from the Humber Estuary down to near Eastbourne. By midday the upper air winds will be over the whole of the UK except for Western Ireland. There will not be much change overnight over the UK but warm fronts will develop over Ireland and Western Scotland.

The waters around Cape Farewell are the most dangerous in the world for navigation. This is due to the harsh weather conditions combined with the existence of icebergs. Look what happened to RMS Titanic. Ice chart >>

Welcome To fully understand our weather we must first look into what is happening in North America as we get most of our weather from that direction. Due to the rotation of our planet and the Coriolis effect in the Northern Hemisphere winds are blown to the right across the North Atlantic to our shores.The Coriolis effect increases in strength the nearer you get to the North Pole and is responsible for large cyclones or depressions. The weather in the North Atlantic is influenced by the 23.5° tilt in the axis of the Earth as the seasons are caused by variations in the angle of the sunlight hitting the Earth and are one of the major causes of Atlantic storms. During the Winter the UK is leaning away from the Sun so sunlight hits it at a greater angle thus spreading its energy over a much wider area which keeps temperatures low so winters will always be relatively cold especially so when snow reflects much of its energy back into space.

North Atlantic Surface Pressure Chart

Geoffrey Wildman