The month of June was breezy, but not exceptional so, with about average rainfall and with lower-than-average temperatures at the start. During the last full week of the month, temperatures changed. A dominating anticyclone developed over Europe with the centre of HIGH surface pressure sitting for days over the middle of the North Sea.

There were serious warnings given of a ‘heat dome’ developing, the main characteristics of which are:  Descending and therefore compressing air, thus generating heat; The high angle of sun, indeed at its greatest with longest daylight hours. The unusually humid air slowed evaporation.

The three day heatwave:

Wednesday 24^th: Because we are situated away from mainland UK, and the amber warning zones almost the opposite happened. A ridge of relatively high pressure drew cool moist surface air off the sea onto the coasts of Ynys Cybi and Mon. The northwesterly wind kept the maximum air temperature here at Gorwelion to a comfortable 23.4C. Lowest was 15.4C, so well clear of a tropical night. Meanwhile records for June were starting to be broken in England.

Thursday 25^th:  During the day we were held in a ‘col’ between two slack features, a low (1009mb) Biscay and the static high North Sea (1023mb) which pushed some of the exceptionally warm air from the mainland of Europe more towards us.  As a result, temperatures here reached 33.1C, with a record-breaking 35.9C for June near Cardiff.
What was most noticeable was the humidity of near 80% combined with lack of wind.

Friday 26^th: Previous June hottest days ever for the whole UK, ws 40.3C in Lincolnshire 2022. So we waited in anticipation for this week’s figures for Ynys Mon.

But being an island sitting geographically to the middle of the Irish Sea this thankfully moderates extremes.

The day began at daybreak with a light rain shower of 0.25mm, with slightly drier air and most essentially, a strengthening sea breeze.Here, this day it maxed out early in the day at 28.6C, cool, compared with 37.3C in Suffolk. In Germany it reached 41.3C

These temperatures are said to have been between 5-12 degrees above seasonal averages.

Alex Deakin of the British Met Office said on Tuesday 23^rd “It really feels tropical with humid air arriving from Africa in France. Previous records were made here very recently in 2022, when the air was comparatively drier. The dew point has been higher this time, playing a key part to the feelings of discomfort”. [Note: A wet bulb temperature (dew point) of 30C is described as uncomfortable, whilst 35C is dangerous].

The General Picture:
The consensus amongst the experts is that the world climate, which has been stable for many thousands of years, will certainly become dangerously unstable again. Carbon is no longer the future for power generation. If we choose to slow the transition to renewables, we will have to pay for it later.  We would simply be more vulnerable to future price shocks of fossil fuels.

The good news is we are addressing global heating. Huge advances are being made with our understanding of weather and climate. Computer models are becoming more refined at an exponential rate. We just need to hope we’re fully on track for mitigating the worse things to come, such as extreme heat and massive sea level rise due to ice loss and expansion of water.