Scorchio, as seen from space

Oh yes, make no mistake: I hate the term 'scorchio' and implore for it to be banned from all weather forecasts.

For ever. From now.

But now that I have your attention, it's well worth a look at the satellite images I've added below. A glorious early summer weekend, as seen in true colour from space. The imagery is courtesy of Modis Rapid Response / NASA.

The first was taken during the early afternoon today (Sunday), with unbroken skies above all of southern and central England, as high pressure sits overhead, surpressing the cloud development. Glorious stuff.

No wonder temperatures have reached 26C+, in the strong sunshine.

The second photo illustrates the slightly different story for a number of coastal areas yesterday (Saturday). Note the sea fog draped along England's North Sea coasts (and some nifty lee waves into parts of Kent, too). This all largely cleared later during the day across much of Norfolk, Essex, Suffolk and elsewhere. However, it remained stubbornly glued to some French coasts all day, formed in the slack easterly drift across cool (10-11C) sea surface temperatures. Note the airliner contrail clearly visible heading ENE out of Dartmoor.

In both photos, the influence of high ground is very evident, as convective clouds build in the flow, forced upwards downwind of the Pennines, Snowdonia and some other upland areas. But without this conspicuous orographic effect to push some clouds skywards against the dominating influence of stable, subsiding atmospheric conditions, much of the nation remains cloud-free.

Monday's weather looks equally very warm (possible warmer still) for most southern districts, before we see a transition back towards seasonal average temperatures towards mid-week.