Britain is in the grip of ‘anticyclonic gloom’ with the weather having been stuck in a rut of mist, fog and low cloud for weeks – and no sunshine on the horizon.
Much of England and Wales has had no meaningful rainfall apart from some drizzle since October 28, although Scotland last saw downpours over the weekend.
And the last day with widespread sunshine across the UK was October 27, although a few weather stations recorded several hours of brightness on Halloween.
The country’s weather is being dominated by high pressure, or an anticyclone, which has been blocking fronts bringing rain and resulting in an extended dry spell.
While such a setup often leads to warm and sunny days with light winds in the summer months, they can result in ‘anticyclonic gloom’ in autumn and winter.
The Met Office has confirmed Britain is under such a phenomenon this week, with the high pressure trapping an area of moisture near the earth’s surface.
Low cloud, mist and fog are then formed by this moisture, which cannot lift and clear because the sunshine and the winds are light – giving the dull conditions.
Another misty day in London yesterday as a woman walks alongside the River Thames
A house in the Oxfordshire village of Dunsden next to fields under the gloom yesterday
A dreary day at Warsash in Hampshire on Monday as the gloomy conditions continue
Because the high pressure is staying put, the low cloud rethickens overnight as temperatures fall and moisture condenses – which can also lead to poorer air quality in cities as pollutants build.
Such gloomy conditions were memorably once referred to by travel writer Bill Bryson as ‘like living inside Tupperware’. He also wrote: ‘Sometimes it rained, but mostly it was just dull, a land without shadows.’
In a social media post on Monday, the Met Office said: ‘This week’s weather phrase: Anticyclonic Gloom.
‘This can occur when high pressure traps a layer of moisture near to the earth’s surface, bringing a prolonged period of dull and cloudy weather, with mist and fog also possible. How would you describe today’s weather?’
One user replied: ‘I mean the lack of wind and rain is great but the heavy gloomy sky, my God is so depressing. It’s been the same for a full week and your forecast is the same all this week too. Just awful, claustrophobic almost.’
Someone else said: ‘Felt that claustrophobia for a few days. Never realised not being able to see the sky for so long would have that effect.’
A third tweeted: ‘We have a summer with little or no anti-cyclonic weather and when we do it’s in November and depressingly dull.’
Anticyclonic gloom, also known by meteorologists as a ‘dirty high’, typically moves away after a week, but this particular episode could stick around for two weeks.
The Met Office’s forecast says today’s conditions will be mostly cloudy with hill fog and odd patches of drizzle, although there may be sunshine in northern Scotland.
Tomorrow will see a mostly cloudy and dry day, slightly cooler than today, and with the best chance of brightness towards the north and west.
Gloomy weather in London last Friday, as a view of the Canaray Wharf skyline can be seen
The Met Office issued a ten-day trend forecast yesterday, in which the caption said: ‘Will we ever see the sun again? It’s been a dull start to November but could a shift in the pressure pattern signal something brighter?’
Forecaster Alex Deakin said in the video: ‘The pressure remains pretty high and as a result the weather will remain largely dry, but the position and shape of the high pressure will kind of dictate what flavour weather we have over the next week or so.
He added that the jet stream was ‘high in the sky, driving well to the north of the UK arching over us and across much of Northern Europe, allowing a big area of high pressure to dominate across most of mainland Europe’.
Mr Deakin continued: ‘Over the next couple of days we’ll start to see another centre of the high develop just to the east of the UK and keeping the weather fronts at bay and that means it’ll stay largely dry.’
He explained how winds were ‘going clockwise around high pressure’, with the air continuing to waft up from the south – so ‘relatively mild air and relatively moist air- and, trapped under the high pressure, as you’ll have noticed, there is an awful lot of cloud’.
A pedestrian walks through misty weather in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, last Thursday
Mr Deakin said: ‘We’re not going to see a great deal of change for the next couple of days – it stays pretty drab, most places dry.’
Looking further ahead, he said: ‘Into the weekend, well, we still have high pressure sitting to the east of us and the jet stream pushing way up to the north.
‘But out in the Atlantic things are changing – the jet stream is coming more east to west and it is trying to shunt some weather fronts towards us. The first couple will kind of just fizzle out, bringing a bit more cloud and a few spots of rain into the west.
‘But the jet stream does look likely to pick up an area of low pressure, but instead of whizzing it across the UK it’s going to nudge it up to the north.
‘This weather front though will bring perhaps a little bit more in the of rain as it crosses the country during the second half of the weekend.
‘But that weather front won’t produce a huge amount of rain and certainly the ones before that will produce very little in the way of rain.’
He said high pressure will then build back in through Sunday and into Monday and this will then dominate the weather for early next week.
Mr Deakin continued also told how charts were suggesting high pressure will ‘continue to dominate throughout next week’, although the position of this high was ‘crucial for the for the type of weather we see sitting to the east of us’.
He also said there would not be so much moisture in the air early next week, and there is a better chance of ‘actually seeing some blue sky rather than grey sky, so some sunshine likely early next week particularly so on Monday’.
The last day with widespread sunshine across the UK was October 27, when these women are pictured in the water at Cayton Bay in Scarborough, North Yorkshire
In the Met Office forecast for November 11 to 20, the forecaster says: ‘Early next week will see a good deal of dry, settled weather as high pressure builds across the UK.
‘However, after a bright start, increasingly cloudy conditions are likely to develop by midweek, with patchy drizzle possible at times. Some fog is also possible, this slow to clear.
‘Later next week, it looks like turning more unsettled for a time, with some rain or showers, particularly towards the east. After a possible brief drier spell next weekend, it may become largely unsettled during the following week.
‘Winds will be mainly light for many parts early next week, but breezier conditions seem likely to develop from later next week. Temperatures will be near or a little above average at first, but will tend to drop a little below average later.’