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Why Is Britain So Cloudy All The Time?


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Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury

ukir_sat_201104181300.jpg

This image is just proof that British weather truly sucks. With a large anticyclone over western Europe, why does most of Britain cloud over by early afternoon while northern France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark have almost no cloud? Yet again we had a beautiful morning that descended into grey nothingness by 2pm, spoiling the chance of a genuinely warm sunny day.

Why does Britain miss out on the sunshine like this so often? Holland and Denmark have North Sea coasts, why don't they get the cloud under the anticyclone as well? I've often been amazed at the difference in summer temperatures and sunshine between here and the same latitude in Holland and Belgium, closer to the sea than i am.

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Posted
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall
  • Weather Preferences: Winter - Heavy Snow Summer - Hot with Night time Thunderstorms
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall

I have been very frustrated by this cloud that keeps developing over the last few days. Always from around 1pm onwards it goes into a warm but cloudy afternoon. Very frustrating and if this happens for the rest of the week i wont be pleased at all.

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Posted
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl
  • Weather Preferences: obviously snow!
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl

from Sunday its looking very cloudy for me this far east, very prone to the north sea misty low cloud, but will get the usual forecasts of cloud only on east coast!

so I reckon for the W Midlands a massive cool down on Easter sunday (maybe monday) with cloud

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Posted
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall
  • Weather Preferences: Winter - Heavy Snow Summer - Hot with Night time Thunderstorms
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall

Id rather have a sunny warm morning and a cloudy warm afternoon mind then cool, drizzly and damp though. So its not all bad.

The outlook is still very settled. Whilst winds should turn to the East next week, it should be too cold with temperatures holding up at very respectable values. The ECM is particularly High Pressure dominated. The GFS bears little rain if any FI too.

I was reading the Water level situation for the Midlands earlier for March 2011. At the time the drought risk was low but said it was moving into moderate. :unsure:

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Posted
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and heatwave
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft

I have been very frustrated by this cloud that keeps developing over the last few days. Always from around 1pm onwards it goes into a warm but cloudy afternoon. Very frustrating and if this happens for the rest of the week i wont be pleased at all.

Drive to london, blue skies here today

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Posted
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall
  • Weather Preferences: Winter - Heavy Snow Summer - Hot with Night time Thunderstorms
  • Location: Truro, Cornwall

Drive to london, blue skies here today

All very good but even here doesnt seem to that bad for cloud usually, especially compared those in Shropshire/Staffordshire/Cheshire way etc but the last couple of days have been annoying to say the least.

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Posted
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and heatwave
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft

All very good but even here doesnt seem to that bad for cloud usually, especially compared those in Shropshire/Staffordshire/Cheshire way etc but the last couple of days have been annoying to say the least.

Had my Spa running a week a barbeque and some lovely sunny weather and its only mid April (thats North Oxfordshire) guess depends where you are in the UK. Central london where I work has largely been warm and sunny.

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Posted
  • Location: Manchester
  • Location: Manchester

Think it's just luck of the draw, some places have avoided the cloud today while others have had it all afternoon. I've been in Manchester for the last few days and it's been mostly sunny- yesterday was clear for most of the day and while we were plagued by the cloud from about 2pm onwards, I was told by friends in Cheltenham that they'd had the cloud nearly all day. I've been in Northern France (near Lille) and into nearby Belgium a few times and experienced cloud when much of the UK was clear and sunny. Mainly to do with the position of the high pressure I imagine. That and the fact that we are surrounded by water (cold at this time of year) while those countries on the Continent only really have it on one side.

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Posted
  • Location: Morecambe
  • Location: Morecambe

I think one of the reason for the clouds formations bubbling and flattern out is due to the high pressure and secondly the air is fairly moist around us at the moment whilst the air over the continent is dry so clouds won't form there(although High whispy cloud is quite common though).

As we pick up more of a Southerly feed, there should be more sunshine although it will probably the fairly hazy sun rather than clear blue skies. The East coast could well be plagued by low cloud and fog later on this week which is something i'm looking forward to. :rolleyes:

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Posted
  • Location: Taunton, Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, thunder, strong winds
  • Location: Taunton, Somerset

Erm, what are these clouds of which you speak? I don't recall seeing a single one today... unsure.gif

Was thinking the exact same thing Jon :D

I think Scorcher has a very good point regarding the sea. The air flow is southeasterly/southerly. For the continent, this breeze is blowing over land. For us, a different matter. It's probably a little more complicated than this but makes sense in my mind.

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Posted
  • Location: East Devon
  • Location: East Devon

I think, as mentioned, its to do with the fact that on the continent they have an offshore flow, whereas the air crosses the sea to reach any point in the UK, picking up more moisture as it does so. Also I think we had lower 850hpa temp values than much of the continent yesterday, perhaps providing a greater lapse rate in the lower layers, encouraging cumulus to bubble up but this then reaching an inversion and spreading out into stratocumulus? Of course the dryer air over the continent probably helped!

I think away from the east coast this should become less of a problem this week, although maybe some convective cumulus perhaps bubbling up into isolated heavy showers or the odd thunderstorm in western areas.

I also think (and have seen) that there are sometimes days like this in France/Germany when the UK fairs better, but we don't tend to notice these living in the UK.

I've been pretty lucky down here, yesterday was another wall to wall sunshine day and today looks like being the same. Though to compensate when the wind is S of East the air temps may not get quite as high as further inland. Still lovely though.

Edited by Stormmad26
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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I think it's likely to be mainly due to moisture- relative humidity is inversely related to how high a parcel of air has to rise before it reaches its condensation level. If the cap on convection is above the condensation level then the result is cumulus developing, hitting the cap and spreading into stratocumulus (as many places saw yesterday) whereas if it's below, then cloud cannot form. It's possible that StormMad26's suggestion (lower 850hPa values creating potential for higher lapse rates) could also have contributed.

I came back from Norwich up to Cleadon on the train yesterday, and while Norwich was sunny all day, it was indeed pretty cloudy at times between Peterborough and York.

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I doubt that pollution has much of an effect on overall cloudiness across the UK, although it does cause a localised increase in cloudiness in and around major town and city centres (typically 10% less sunshine in city centres than in surrounding rural areas) similar to the way the urban heat island has significant but localised effects.

Airmasses with a lot of embedded pollution tend to produce hazy skies, and in partly cloudy conditions you get orangey hues near the horizon and striking displays of "sun rays", and the high associated PM-10 concentrations in the atmosphere can increase the amount of condensation nuclei available. However, such hazy polluted days are most commonly associated with the import of polluted air from the continent (implying that it's similarly hazy over the other side of the English Channel), so it doesn't explain why the UK ends up with more cloud.

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Posted
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks

I am at a loss as to why the question is even asked!

We are an island on the edge of the Atlantic, from where about 70% I would estimate of our weather originates from. We have the North Sea on the other side to complicate matters.

What do you expect? Trying to compare the UK to inland or even coastal areas of Europe is something of a waste of time. Have a look at web sites that show % frequency of surface winds and see what different locations show to show why the UK is generally cloudier than Europe as a general rule.

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Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury

I am at a loss as to why the question is even asked!

We are an island on the edge of the Atlantic, from where about 70% I would estimate of our weather originates from. We have the North Sea on the other side to complicate matters.

What do you expect? Trying to compare the UK to inland or even coastal areas of Europe is something of a waste of time. Have a look at web sites that show % frequency of surface winds and see what different locations show to show why the UK is generally cloudier than Europe as a general rule.

But if it's all the water lapping at us why then is New Zealand, with no continental landmass within 1,000 miles, so much sunnier?

http://www.emigratenz.org/NewZealandSunshine.html

Hokitika with 1,850 hours is on the west coast, and gets something like 2,000 mm of rain a year- and it's still much sunnier than London (which is much sunnier than most of the UK). Invercargill is nearly 50 degrees south, has similar temperatures to Scotland, yet it's still sunnier than here in the relatively sheltered Midlands.

Having been there in their winter, it really did seem to be a case of when it's not raining (or snowing); it's sunny- they just don't get days on end of dry cloudy weather.

Another place to compare us with is the west coast of North America at the same latitude-

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/index.php?product=statistics&pagecontent=C02096

The average July in Vancouver is sunnier than July 2006 was here, and look how much it dries up in summer. Why not here then?

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

My impression is that we get a lot more of that mild, moist tropical maritime type weather than those other locations- and Tm air (whether in a broad SW flow or embedded in high pressure) is a common source of dry cloudy weather.

We also have the North Sea separating us from a large continental landmass which often gives us dry cloudy weather via easterlies- conversely west coasts of continents tend to be dry and sunny when easterlies blow from the continental interiors, while east coasts of oceanic areas (e.g. the likes of Christchurch in New Zealand) probably don't see the same degree of stability when easterlies blow, reducing the incidence of stratus and stratocumulus sheets trapped underneath an inversion.

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Posted
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft
  • Weather Preferences: Snow and heatwave
  • Location: Napton on the Hill Warwickshire 500ft

Hope to get a good tan this weekend

25c and unbroken sunshine

costa da oxford :whistling:

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Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury

My impression is that we get a lot more of that mild, moist tropical maritime type weather than those other locations- and Tm air (whether in a broad SW flow or embedded in high pressure) is a common source of dry cloudy weather.

We also have the North Sea separating us from a large continental landmass which often gives us dry cloudy weather via easterlies- conversely west coasts of continents tend to be dry and sunny when easterlies blow from the continental interiors, while east coasts of oceanic areas (e.g. the likes of Christchurch in New Zealand) probably don't see the same degree of stability when easterlies blow, reducing the incidence of stratus and stratocumulus sheets trapped underneath an inversion.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2273.html

The other mid-latitude island country of course is Japan, which really does have interesting weather. As far as I can see the western and northern areas gets masses of snow in winter, and little sunshine, yet have mild sunny summers sheltered from the monsoon rains and typhoons. While the eastern side (like Tokyo) has really unpleasant-looking summers (weeks of monsoon rain, high humidity) although Tokyo's July sunshine, at the height of the monsoon, is no lower than we've had here for most of this century. Yet it has amazingly sunny winters- 181 hours in January! It seems like everywhere has a dependably "sunny season", even if it be winter in one place, summer in another. Must be the proximity to both frigid Siberia and the warm tropical Pacific that cause this, with more temperature extremes than Europe or the Mid-Atlantic can ever manage.

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Posted
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks

But if it's all the water lapping at us why then is New Zealand, with no continental landmass within 1,000 miles, so much sunnier?

http://www.emigraten...ndSunshine.html

its latitude plays a large part

Hokitika with 1,850 hours is on the west coast, and gets something like 2,000 mm of rain a year- and it's still much sunnier than London (which is much sunnier than most of the UK). Invercargill is nearly 50 degrees south, has similar temperatures to Scotland, yet it's still sunnier than here in the relatively sheltered Midlands.

Having been there in their winter, it really did seem to be a case of when it's not raining (or snowing); it's sunny- they just don't get days on end of dry cloudy weather.

Another place to compare us with is the west coast of North America at the same latitude-

http://www.theweathe...econtent=C02096

read the climate books on the west coast of N America and UK for that answer

The average July in Vancouver is sunnier than July 2006 was here, and look how much it dries up in summer. Why not here then?

and your query about Japan,

1-its much further south than the UK

2-its very close to the main land mass of the earth-Asia

I really do suggest you read some climate books on the GENERAL weather patterns in various parts of the world-I'm sure it would answer most of your queries, latitude, sea temperatures, day length, proximity to ocean/land area, weather patterns etc. all have a part to play in why some areas have more sun/cloud/snow/rain/wind than others.

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Posted
  • Location: Shrewsbury
  • Location: Shrewsbury

and your query about Japan,

1-its much further south than the UK

2-its very close to the main land mass of the earth-Asia

I really do suggest you read some climate books on the GENERAL weather patterns in various parts of the world-I'm sure it would answer most of your queries, latitude, sea temperatures, day length, proximity to ocean/land area, weather patterns etc. all have a part to play in why some areas have more sun/cloud/snow/rain/wind than others.

I remember finding an old book by Lamb in the university library a few years ago, was fascinating and very detailed but limited to Britain. Most of the "world climate guide" type books and websites I can find seem aimed at holidaymakers, and don't go into enough detail to answer these questions. But I'll keep looking.

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Posted
  • Location: Huddersfield, 145m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Lots of snow, lots of hot sun
  • Location: Huddersfield, 145m ASL

Suerly it's simply down to prevailing wind directions, (and therefore prevailing weather patterns) ? i.e. because the prevailing weather pattern/wind direction for the UK is from westerly directions (and therefore off the Atlantic) it's going to be of a higher moisture content (aka clouds) ? Whereas for places like Japan or New Zealand this might not necessarily be the case ? Also, I'm sure I read somewhere that because much of western Britain is (relatively) more mountainous, this pushes the moisture aloft more quickly, causing more rapid cloud formation, which is then carried eastwards on the prevailing winds ? I'm sure if you found parts of the world with similar micro-climates and topologies to the UK they would have very similar weather ?

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Posted
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks
  • Location: just south of Doncaster, Sth Yorks

To give a full explanation, and its not very difficult to do, would take pages and I simply have not the time to do this. Hence my suggestion of reading whatever data anyone can find on climates around the world. Topography is yet another addition to the mix.

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