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Outrageous warm air advection! istheukhotrightnow.com

An exceptionally deep extratropical cyclone for the time of year just west of Ireland. 953 hPa on the 12 UTC Met Office analysis. Helping drive strong warm advection to its east which has brought exceptionally high temperatures to parts of the UK yesterday and overnight ahead of the cold front.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 28/09/2026

2010 is like the 1976 of cold events. So outrageously anomalous with respect to the climate of the time

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Matt Patterson @mattpattclimate.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Only 40 years ago, average winter daily minimum temperatures were below freezing across Scotland.

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Dundee Satellite Station Ltd. @dundeesat.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

North Atlantic Conveyor: GeoColour - True Colour daytime, multispectral IR at night - 27 Sep 2026 - to 0640 UTC. In this loop, the Nor'easter affecting the NE coast of the US currently is clearly visible @petagna.bsky.social @simonleewx.com @drgeoffsmith.bsky.social @rodneyforster.bsky.social

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Tim Osborn @timosbornclim.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I’ve updated the long-running (starts 1866) CRU Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). This lets us compare the currently developing El Niño with earlier events including 1877-78. 2026 has developed very quickly, similar to the 1997-98 one. Thick line is 3-month running mean, with y-axis reversed.

1866-present timeseries of Climatic Research Unit SOI with some major El Niño events marked.

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Kim Wood @drkimwood.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

In the eastern North Pacific south of Mexico, Hurricane Polo has rapidly intensified from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just over a day and continues to barrel toward category 5 strength.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 22/09/2026

GEFS is basically going for the Pacific Trough regime for the full subseasonal run. El Niño's North Pacific teleconnection activated and locked? simonleewx.com/gefs_north_a...

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MeteoGib @meteogib.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#Gibraltar - 19/09 - after a mostly cloudy and breezy start, with any showers passing to our South in the Strait and over Morocco, we now have plenty of sunshine with a detached Lenticular-type Levanter forming as the Easterly strengthened - at 12:30pm, the temp is 24C in a moderate or fresh wind.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 19/09/2026

BBC News with yet another bizarrely weak way of saying “Climate change is driven predominantly by burning fossil fuels and will continue until net zero emissions are reached.” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“Recent climate data combined with record heatwaves have given weight to the argument against further exploitation of fossil fuels.”

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 18/09/2026

The nascent Arctic stratospheric polar vortex at 10 hPa (~30 km). What lies ahead this winter? Seasonal forecasts suggest a weak vortex in the second half of winter, likely driven by increased upward Rossby wave propagation from a deepened Aleutian Low in response to El Niño. earth.nullschool.net

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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 17/09/2026

Following quality control checks, a manually operated weather station has been confirmed to have recorded 38.2°C on Thursday the 13th of August, making it the hottest day of 2026. This exceeds the previous maximum temperature of 38.1°C recorded at Kew Gardens on the same day.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 16/09/2026

I appreciate it is important to remind reviewers, and in my own past editorial experience it was frustrating when reviewers went overdue without contact. But this level of email hounding by a major publisher – who only give you 14 days to review initially – is ridiculous. @springernature.com

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 16/09/2026

Yesterday, I received an automated reminder from a journal that my review was 1 day overdue. I requested a short extension. Today, I have received not one, but TWO further automated reminders telling me I am overdue. I have not received a response from the journal.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 15/09/2026

Spotted some awesome fluctus clouds (Kelvin–Helmholtz waves) earlier this evening

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 14/09/2026

This is the sort of 'quiet drought' that can easily escape public perception, leading to continued resource depletion. It's not been some mega heatwave with weeks of blue skies, and we have had some wet days lately. But it's been persistently not as wet as normal, and a few wet days don't undo that.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 14/09/2026

Indeed. Considering how we've been so quick to make Scholar and ORCiD standard for managing records of publications, it's pretty poor that the voluntary practice underpinning it all isn't given an equally standardised record.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 14/09/2026

When I edited Weather, the system we used (ScholarOne) couldn't handle OoOs, so we had no idea if someone was away unless we emailed them personally. I suggested several times that adding this as a feature seemed obvious. I know Wiley have their own system now, so maybe that will be more feasible.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 14/09/2026

I've received 3 paper review requests and 1 reminder to do a review *just this morning* 🤯🤷‍♂️ This could be ameliorated if review requests were managed through a central system assigned to the individual (something like ORCiD) rather than by individual journals.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 14/09/2026

…at 10 hPa (to be super clear).

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 14/09/2026

The sudden stratospheric warming that took place in January 2009 remains one of the most spectacular atmospheric dynamical events ever observed. The poleward eddy heat flux anomaly associated with it reached 5.6 sigma – the largest N Hemisphere wintertime anomaly in the satellite era.

Time–pressure cross-section of ERA5 meridional eddy heat flux anomalies for Nov 2008 to March 2009 with respect to a 1979/80 – 2025/26 climatology. Negative absolute eddy heat flux is hatched. The max anomaly is 5.6 std dev at 10 hPa during the Jan 2009 SSW onset.

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St Andrews Earth & Environmental Sciences @earthscista.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A huge welcome back to all our students – and an especially warm welcome to everyone joining us for the first time! 🌍🪨👋 Today is the first day of teaching and we’re excited to kick off a new academic year filled with fieldwork, labs, maps, mountains and, inevitably, some Scottish weather. 🥾🗺️🌧️🌱🌋

Photo of many members of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences faculty and research scientists, taken on a very sunny day so many people are struggling to keep their eyes open!

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 14/09/2026

Broadly also consistent with a 2 sigma Pacific Ridge regime, which also features a SE ridge

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 12/09/2026

Yeah, that’s true. I think in this case I’m the limiting factor because the syntax of the AI-generated code was unfamiliar to me, so I couldn’t optimise it for my use very quickly. It was also perhaps trying too hard to be “perfect” when I already had certain implicit guardrails.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 12/09/2026

Just an example of not blindly assuming (current) generative AI is the better option in all circumstances. Much like how we used to treat some code solutions on StackOverflow, tbh.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 12/09/2026

Used ChatGPT to write some Python code for some straightforward gridded data analyses. Code generated in seconds. However, it was so inefficient and so different to how I’d write it (such that I struggled to modify it), that it was quicker to just write my own. And I don’t claim to write great code!

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 11/09/2026

Climate deniers on LinkedIn writing perfect climate science exam questions

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 11/09/2026

Yes, it's a nice illustration of the role of 'weather' operating in two different climates

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Mika Rantanen @mikarantane.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Job alert: full professorship in meteorology in the University of Helsinki! New position in dynamic meteorology, synoptic-scale meteorology and numerical weather prediction. The vacancy has been opened due to the passing of Dr. Victoria Sinclair. Details: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

jobs.helsinki.fi

Professor/Associate or Assistant Professor, Meteorology

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 10/09/2026

8 years ago, I tweeted side-by-side maps from NASA GISS showing global temperatures in 1976 and 2018 – both hot summers in the UK. It subsequently went viral and was printed in the Daily Mail! The 2026 version is stark. Two locally extreme summers separated by 50 years of global climate change.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 10/09/2026

Went to see "Pressure" last night – fantastic depiction of the most important forecast ever made, and a great advert for meteorology. Particularly glad that Maureen Sweeney is recognised by name – we interviewed her for this @rmets.org Weather in my Life article in 2021 doi.org/10.1002/wea....

doi.org

Weather in my life – Maureen Sweeney

Click on the article title to read more.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 09/09/2026

I agree with the haggis part

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 09/09/2026

Someone is playing bagpipes right outside my office. No, this is not what Scotland is always like.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 07/09/2026

Intense squall passing through to St Andrews just now — a nice “welcome back” to our undergraduates, and a taster of what the Scottish weather can do for those new to the area!

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 04/09/2026

Panic-bought baked beans tonight Am I doing this right?

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 04/09/2026

This is like saying "barbecue summer" all over again.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 04/09/2026

"Dame Angela said: "We're about to experience probably the largest El Niño... that will lead to drier summers, wetter winters, with more extreme storms in this country." Since when does El Niño have a deterministic teleconnection of that magnitude to the UK? Sigh. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Stock up on food to prepare for extreme El Niño weather, minister says

Dame Angela Eagle warns the weather event could lead to extreme storms this winter.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 04/09/2026

Gorgeous view of an occluded low north of the polar front!

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 31/08/2026

IFS analyses suggest there have been 42 days of the Greenland High regime in summer 2026. The only other summers to have seen more are 2012, 2016, 2019 and 2023. doi.org/10.1029/2025GL119421

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 28/08/2026

Climate deniers/contrarians on LinkedIn give their game away in plain sight. Invariably, when you look at their employment history, oil and gas is involved one way or another. Who’d have thought?

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 27/08/2026

That doesn’t show all the raw Doppler products like velocity and differential reflectivity which would be most useful, as well as being able to see scans from individual radars rather than the composite

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 27/08/2026

It’s probably one of those highly bureaucratic things which is more difficult to make happen than it should be

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 27/08/2026

Canada, Germany, Finland, South Korea, Australia also included

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