United Kingdom

UK Weather Overview

The UK is comprised of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Island. It receives a temperate maritime climate with all four seasons but no extremes of temperature. Being a relatively small land mass, there isn’t a great deal of regional variation. However, there are a number of microclimates; rain and temperature variations are caused by mainly by elevation and to a lesser extent, latitude. As a whole the UK sees a temperate maritime climate and is infamous for its changeable weather, cloudy skies and persistent rainfall. The North Atlantic which meets the west coast is to thank for milder temperatures than expected at this latitude but to blame for the rain and erratic nature of the weather. The east shares a coast with the North Sea which is considerably colder the Atlantic.

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, while Cardiff sees, on average, 60-100mm.

The difference is particularly pronounced in Scotland, as 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 southeast only sees 170 days of rain.

High rainfall has led to a series of disastrous floods across the years. The autumn of 2000 saw exceptionally high rainfalls across England and Wales, lasting for over 7 weeks. This was the heaviest rainfall recorded in 270 years and led to flooding which affected 10,000 homes and businesses, and forced 11,000 families to evacuate.

The concern is that this is just the beginning of the UK’s freak weather, that flooding in autumn, heat waves in summer and frostless winters will become commonplace as human-induced climate change advances. While major floods would have previously only occurred every 100 years they may start to happen every 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 has 790 small 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, keeping winters mild.

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

As you move further north, winter conditions get slightly more extreme - as they do when you move to points of higher altitude. In the lowlands of Scotland, the winter maximums sit at about 6°C, while the summer maximums generally sit at 18°C.

The west coast of Scotland is warmer than the east coast, due to its proximity to the Gulf Stream. In the west also lies the Western Highlands which is the wettest place in all of Scotland, seeing 3000mm precipitation on average per 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.

While England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland rarely experience temperature extremes, there are random heat waves - most recently, the summer 2006 heat wave 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°C, while London sees an average high of 22°C. In the larger cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham and London, the inner city is affected by the urban heat phenomenon.

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 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 night doesn’t properly set in, leaving a prolonged twilight - similar to the ‘midnight sun’ affect in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland.

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 the conditions for Birmingham here.

View average conditions for Cardiff in the west here.

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

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