We were all enjoying warm sunshine for a suspiciously long time this year.
And while it was lovely to relish what felt like a prolonged summer, it wasn’t normal – temperatures around Europe were usually high, right up the few days.
So, what caused it?
Meteorologist Scott Duncan shared a time lapse video on Twitter showing the jet streams moving across Europe between October 27 and 30.
Dark red waves can be seen moving across western Europe before hitting the east of the continent, showing temperatures from 15°C and above.
He added the caption, “We have never observed warmth like this in Europe so late in the year,” and soon racked up 10,900 likes for his alarming graphic.
Duncan added another short clip in a follow-up tweet, showing the “enormous low-pressure gyre” in the North Atlantic which built up before hitting Europe.
He explained: “This setup is perfect for delivering exceptional warmth to Europe from south-westerly flow.
“Temperatures closer to those expected in late August or early September.”
So a wave of low pressure triggered the warm weather we experienced for the first part of the autumn.
Duncan also pointed out that Austria has just recorded its warmest October night nationally in its history, with a minimum temperature of 20.4°C – which is by definition a tropical night.
These high temperatures are not surprising, considering the effect global warming had on Europe over the last few months.
A July heatwave saw the UK struggle in a record-breaking 40.3°C, while a follow-up August heatwave stretched on for six days and hit a record of 34.2°C.
A drought followed, with hosepipe bans in place across the country as only 14% of rivers in England considered in “good ecological health”.
“This is a historically unusual autumn.”
- Zoe Avison, Green Alliance UK
Floods came after that, with the land being so dry it couldn’t absorb the rain.
The Met Office has predicted that we’ll continue to experience wet, windy and mild spells for now, although it warned that there could be a sudden cold spell for the northern hemisphere (again due to global warming disrupting weather patterns) in the future.
In response to Duncan’s tweet, policy analyst from Green Alliance UK, Zoe Avison, also warned: “This is a historically unusual autumn.
“But the next time it happens, it will seem less extraordinary – a phenomenon known as ’shifting baseline syndrome’.
“What seems normal now is very different to what our parents were used to.
“We are, essentially, boiling frogs.”