Wet or sweat? Festival weather revealed

The outcomes of Glastonbury, T In The Park, Download and hundreds more remain as always in the balance, but for the first time a vague picture is emerging and it's not too bad.

The hot May weather we’re currently experiencing won’t last for the duration but neither will record-breaking rain, as experienced in 2007.

“Expect to get a sun tan at festivals, but expect also to get rained on,” says MetCheck’s Andrew Bond.

The Met Office agrees, predicting a “typical British summer” with temperatures warmer than average, and rainfall near or just above average for summer months.

The UK’s weather system is currently being affected the La Nina weather system in the Pacific, which has resulted in summer arriving a little later.  

And while it’s too early to predict exact forecasts for UK festivals, Mr Bond expects summer to feature a more manageable mix of sunshine and rainy spells.

He said:  “It will be the kind of summer where we’ll have two fine days followed by a thunder storm. That kind of thing. We can’t see any sustained heat waves but then again it’s difficult to see anything particularly dire like last year.”

So how will it affect the festivals you’re going to? According to MetCheck this is how it could roughly work out...

June

“June is traditionally an unsettled month because Europe is heating up. It creates what we call the European Summer Monsoon, drawing in moisture from Atlantic, and that coincides with a number of festivals. We always get three waves of the monsoon and Glastonbury always seems to plonk itself right in the middle of the third. If they moved it two weeks later it would probably be gloriously sunny every year! Expect three spells of bad weather, which could affect the weekends of Download and Isle Of Wight.”

July

“Mid-July is generally the best time of year for the UK. Despite Scotland having worse weather throughout the year, the fact T In The Park is in mid-July makes it the most likely time for sunny and dry weather, however as we know this isn’t always the case! If you were a festival organiser then July is easily your best bet. It’s too soon to say what weeks might be the better ones though.”

August

“August can be a mixed bag. There is usually a lot of sunshine but also lots of thunder storms around. You can always be unlucky and get very wet. It just depends on where you are and what the weather is doing at the time. It can be spontaneous and changeable. Mid to late August is traditionally the time when autumn is starting to feel noticeable. Sometimes an extended summer keeps temperatures up, but generally towards the end of the month the autumn gales start up which can cause trouble.”
 
And the next scorching summer, according to Mr Bond? 2010 when El Nino returns... Only two years to go!

Stay posted to Met Check HERE for more details predictions throughout summer.