Today’s satellite image (Figure 1) shows widespread clouds over the continent. This is caused by a Tropical Maritime air advection (TM) along the N flank of a High over Spain. All the moisture and warm air is pushed over the Mediterranean region and central Europe. Meanwhile, a deep low over the Atlantic brings unsettled and windy weather across the British Isles. On the E side of the continent cold air flows S from Siberia, though mitigated as it reaches E Europe/Russia.
The temperatures observed at 12UTC today (Figure 2) are significantly above the climatological average for this time of the year across most of the continent.
Indeed, temperatures between 10/15°C are observed over the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Iberian Peninsula (here with peaks of 20/22°C along the E coast). Also in the Balkans and Greece temperature are very mild (between 15/20°C in S Greece).
Only in Russia and Central/N Scandinavia wintry conditions are observed, with values below freezing. However, these temperatures are still ‘mild’ compared with the climatology (e.g. in Moscow 0°C, but it should be -9/-4°C).
The next few days will see a further increase in temperature over all W Europe, with risk of some record-breaking values in France/Spain/Italy (possible peaks above 20°C) in some areas. This is caused by a northward shift of the Jet Stream over W Europe combined with the strengthen of the High over Iberia. Only from next week, the Jet Stream will push S towards central Europe causing a drop in temperatures (but there is still some uncertainty about its effects on a local scale).
