The current climate of the United Kingdom is classified as temperate, with
warm summers, cool winters and plentiful precipitation throughout the year.
The principle factors of influence on the climate include the UK's northerly
latitude (which ranges from 50° to 60° N), its close proximity
to the Atlantic Ocean and, especially, the warming of the waters around
the British Isles by the Gulf Stream. The weather can be notoriously changeable
from one day to the next but temperature variations throughout the year
are small.
The climate of the United Kingdom is significantly influenced by the maritime
tropical, maritime polar, continental polar and continental tropical air
masses.
The UK is at the boundary of convergence between the warm tropical air
to the south and the cold polar air to the north. In this area, the large
temperature variation creates instability and this major factor that influences
the notoriously changeable and often unsettled weather the UK experiences,
where many or all types of weather can be experienced in a single day.
Winter in the UK is generally a cool, wet and windy season. Temperatures
at night rarely drop below -10 °C and in the day rarely rise above
15 °C. Precipitation is plentiful throughout the season with occasional
snow. Spring is generally a rather calm, cold and dry season, principally
since the Atlantic has lost much of its heat throughout the autumn and
winter. Summer climatic differences are more influenced by latitude and
temperatures are highest in southern and central areas and lowest in the
north. Generally, however, summer temperatures rarely go much above 30 °C;
the record max is 38.5 °C. Autumn in the UK is notorious for being
extremely unsettled. As cool polar air moves southwards following the sun
in the sky, it meets the warm air of the tropics and produces an area of
great disturbance along which the United Kingdom lies. This combined with
the warm ocean, which due to heating throughout the spring and summer,
produces the unsettled weather of autumn. In addition, when the air is
particularly cold it may actually be colder than the ocean and this can
result in significant amounts of condensation, producing clouds which eventually
condense and bring rain to the UK.
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