One of the reasons that sparked my initial interest in meteorology were some of the drastically contrasting conditions that occur in the UK, given the relatively small island that we are. Take yesterday for example. If you were in central or eastern areas of England, you must have been sweltering in the heat. Both London and Cambridge reached the dizzy heights of 31 Celsius (88F), well above the average temperature for the time of the year, which is usually around 20 Celsius (68F).

If you were in the east of Scotland, you were probably wondering what all the fuss was about. Here, a chilly breeze off the North Sea brought in a great deal of low cloud, mist and murk. For these reasons, it turned out to be a rather grim day in places such as Aberdeen and St Andrews, with temperatures struggling around 12 or 13 Celsius (around 54F). This was below their seasonal average of around 16 Celsius (61F), and almost a whopping 20 degrees below the UK's maximum.

Contrasts have been even greater across the Atlantic, in Canada. The story centres on Hudson Bay. On Tuesday, a weather front lay across the southern end of the bay. To the south of the weather front was some very warm air. For instance, at Moonsonee in Ontario, on the shores of James Bay, the temperature reached a hot and sticky 29.9 Celsius (86F) - well above their June average of 18.8 Celsius (66F).

To the north of the front it was a completely different story. A plunge of very cold air from the Arctic resulted in the mercury only struggling to a bitter 2.6 Celsius (37F) at Churchill in Manitoba. This town, sat on the banks of Hudson Bay, would normally be seeing temperatures of around 11 Celsius (52F). The huge contrast in the temperatures over such a comparatively small distance helped to give the weather front, between the two towns, that extra bit of energy. This resulted in some fairly heavy bursts of rain.

Elsewhere in the world, heavy rains continued to sweep up the western Pacific in association with Typhoon Conson (previously '07W'). Eastern Taiwan has borne the brunt of the rains over the past couple of days, as well as being hit by winds gusting to 95 mph. The winds are now starting to ease, but the rain remains and are now heading north, towards Japan.

Weather News from the last five days:
08/06/2004
07/06/2004
06/06/2004
05/06/2004
04/06/2004

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