The winds gusted up to 65mph across much of Yorkshire yesterday and 53mph here in Salendine Nook at 11.30am, leaving little doubt it was a windy day.
In city centre’s around tall buildings isolated gusts to 80mph is possible. The wind was particularly turbulent around the frequent showers.
These showers developed in what we call unstable polar air that originated over Greenland last night and hurtled across the Atlantic at over 60mph in the lower atmosphere and over 130mph much higher up. This fast moving air over slower moving air also causes gustiness. The air at the surface warms over the Atlantic on approach to the UK and becomes unstable. With massive evaporation into the colder air aloft. That's why we got heaped cumulus and cumulonimbus, traditionally the shower and thunder cloud during the day. These clouds rise to over 30,000 feet and can also bring turbulent vertical winds that only add to the gust strength at the surface. We may get a few more of these clouds this weekend, then it settles down.
