As the UK has been lapped by the edges of a very large high pressure I've been keeping an eye on the action at its centre, and it looks like we are in the middle of a potentially record breaking heatwave for sustained heat over the Baltic states and parts of Scandinavia.

News coverage is limited but here are a few snippets:

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/baltic_news/?doc=13439

http://www.sott.net/article/212473-Heatwave-fuels-massive-algae-bloom-in-Baltic-Sea

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2010/07/15/europe_wilts_in_heat_wave.html

But the maps tell the story well:

It starts around the 5th of July as a plume of warm air comes in on the leading edge of an Atantic depression:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/2014/avn/Rtavn00220140705.png

While the UK has a few chilly days in advance of our warm spell, things get established with temps in the 30s across much of Scandinavia:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/2014/avn/Rtavn00220140708.png

Cools off over the Baltic for a couple of days as a trough comes in, but Scandinavia remains hot:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/2014/avn/Rtavn00220140714.png

That block then gets more established:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/2014/avn/Rtavn00220140721.png

Hangs around: very warm but not too hot at this point, similar to UK:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/archive/2014/avn/Rtavn00220140726.png

Now we get into forecast territory - this week heat really ramps up over the Baltic in particular:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rtavn362.gif

By this weekend 850hPa temps are nearing 20C and air temps in the mid to high 30s:

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rtavn1562.gif

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rtavn15617.gif

Next week: still going strong...

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rtavn2282.gif

The following weekend: respite at last?

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rtavn3242.gif

...or will the heat just come back again?

http://www.wetterzentrale.de/pics/Rtavn3842.gif

 

 

 

 

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Interesting sequence. Thanks for digging all the charts out

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Certainly looks very hot in the north-east - Termps getting above 100f for some again? 

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Yep - pretty much what I eluded to over the past few days in the model thread, looking very hot for many in Eastern and Northern Europe. For example Moscow likely to be at or above 30C for at least 12 days starting today.

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34C in Moscow today, 33C yesterday. Looks like 34 or 35C tomorrow. In fact it's been above 24C for 20 days now over there.

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Been in Moscow and Saint Petersburg for a week, leaving to Amsterdam Schiphol tomorrow and spent 3 days in Moscow and 3 days in Saint Petersburg.

In Moscow it's been 31c for the whole three days - I stayed at Metropol Hotel near Red Square.

In Saint Petersburg it was 34c on Friday when I visited the winters palace (Hermitage). Bear in mind I was doing a lot of walking and in Russia not all cafe's, taxies or restaurants have air-con. It's dry heat too - low humidity and I had several nose bleeds!

Not a drop of rain - one day there were some fair weather cumulus clouds but that was it! Just 30-35c in both cities and night time temperatures have been unusually high at 23c. There is breeze in the evening at Saint P now. People in Saint Petersburg and Moscow say how unusual it is.

Leaving back to Amsterdam tomorrow and then Bristol (KLM).

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Been +30c - 35c in Moscow and Saint Petersburg all week. not a drop of rain and sunny every day! Very low humidity! Little or no breeze either!

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Latvia has just broken its national high temp record 2 days running.

hit 37.2c in Ventspils yesterday

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140804/latvian-meteorological-centre-registers-record-high-temperat

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http://m.baltictimes.com/article/jcms/id/35267/ 

You can see the result in the SSTs in the Baltic. Now over 20C, even 22C off Kaliningrad, which is on a par with current SSTs off the Algarve and only a degree below the Costa del Sol. Should ensure them a mild late autumn / early winter I'd have thought.

http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/cgi-app/watertemperature?LANG=en&CONT=euro&GEBIET=0001 

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In 4 weeks the max temperature in Moscow has only dropped below 24C twice. Most of that time the max temp has averaged above 25C.

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I was in Helsinki and central southern Finland from 23rd July to 5th August and the weather was insanely beautiful.  Hot and muggy with temperatures often above 30c and nights not dropping below 20c.  Occasional thunderstorms and very warm lake temperatures of 29c.  It was warmer in Finland than back home in Santa Monica   With the houses built for extreme cold, it meant for some uncomfortable and sweaty sleeps in just a pair of undies and not much else, with the occasional trip to the balcony/porch to 'cool off' only to be eaten alive by the mozzies 

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