The UK is rather like a roundabout because it is at the meeting point of several different air masses which bring different types of weather from different directions.
This explains why we experience such varied weather from week to week and how occasionally we can be affected by extreme weather events. The UK is located at a latitude of 55oN. This puts the UK at the Polar and Ferrell cell convergence where cold polar air moving down from the north meets warm sub-tropical air moving up from the south. The boundary between these two air masses is unstable. Here there is rising air and low pressure belts on the ground. Rising air cools, condenses and forms clouds and rain. This is why it is often cloudy and wet in the UK. Surface winds come from the south west, bringing warm and wet conditions to the UK. But sometimes the cold polar air from the north moves down over the UK bringing snow and very cold winter weather. |