Indian summer 2016

[xmetman]

According to the Met Office an Indian summer is:-

An Indian summer is a name often used to describe a warm, calm spell of weather that occurs in autumn.

Often when we experience a warm period of weather during the autumn months, we hear it referred to as 'Indian summer', but what exactly does this mean and where does the phrase come from?

The Met Office Meteorological Glossary first published in 1916, defines an Indian summer as 'a warm, calm spell of weather occurring in autumn, especially in October and November'.

The first three days of October 2016 have fitted that description to a T across the British Isles, the nights have certainly been cool with a touch of frost, but the days have been absolutely gorgeous with some lovely skyscapes as is the case today in mid-Devon (3 October) with a scattering of cumulus mediocris on all horizons:-

The block that is producing these southerlies looks like it will be around for a number of days, but as the flow becomes more easterly it looks likely to bring more cloud and a biting easterly to eastern counties.

Here are the 1200 UTC temperature anomalies for today (3 October 2016) with the north and west doing very well with anomalies particularly high in the north west of Scotland.