Western Europe's Omega HeatWestern Europe is hot this week because the jet stream has locked into an omega block.
Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, by contrast, have held cool. The 500 hPa setup shows a large high-pressure ridge over western and central Europe, boxed in by lower pressure to the east and west. The flow bends into the shape of the Greek omega.
Beneath that ridge, air sinks. Cloud thins. The late-June sun hits harder. On the southern flank, clockwise flow pulls Saharan air north into Spain, France and Britain. As that air sinks under the high, it compresses and warms.
This is a circulation event. Not a "climate emergency". And western Europe is not the globe. While France and the UK bake, cool anomalies sit across the High Arctic, North America, parts of Asia and Australia, South America, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.
As for the records, the UK Met Office shouldn't be trusted.Early week, the media cycle, fueled by the office, leaned heavily into 39C to 40C. Fingers hovered over red "Danger To Life" alerts. But Wednesday's high, by the Met Office's reckoning, came in at 36.1C (97F) at Gosport Fleetlands.
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