What. the. F***?!

It's also influenced by about half a dozen different weather zones making the weather some of the least predictable in the world.

Yep - there are 5 different air masses affecting the UK:

- Arctic (cold air from the Arctic, brings really cold weather and snow in winter)

- Polar Continental (cold air from Siberia/NE, brings snow showers in winter)

- Tropical continental (warm, dry air from Spain/France (SE), brings hot, hazy weather in summer, but also the thunderstorms)

- Tropical maritime (our most common airmasss, warm, moist air from the SW, brings the rain and drizzle we are used to in the UK)

- Polar maritime (cold, clean air from the NW, bringing showers (snow showers in winter))

The direction that the air is coming from will determine what kind of weather we have. It's been so cold the last couple of weeks because high pressure over the Atlantic has stopped the warmer SW airmass from reaching the UK and so has given us a northerly Artic/Polar Continental airflow.

The good news is that that high pressure centre over the Atlantic has now moved east to the UK, cutting off the cold air from the north and bringing calm, sunny and warmer weather for the next few days .

At least you guys probably weren't camping in Paris last week though... I was, and I was bloody freezing (and wet) all week (I've even picked up a cold as well) !

Well in south Germany and Austria, they've had to evacuate cos of flood there!

KS, any thoughts on Climate Change?

I am not a scientist but I believe in science, so I trust the pretty big majority of climatologists who say that the Earth is gradually warming and that this warming is at least due in part to mankind's activities. I can't see them all skewing data to get grants.

Now I know recently climatologists have begun to adjust projections a bit, but this only seems sensible as new data comes in - it is not a weakness per say in the whole theory. It would actually be sort of disingenuous not to update your models as new data is found. 

I understand that meteorology is more about weather and such but you guys must talk this stuff over, and I have always wanted to ask.