The jet stream, a large-scale wave-like wind pattern in the upper atmosphere that flows from west to east (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

If you looked outside right now, it would be hard to tell if we were in July or November.

According to the Met Office, the UK is currently experiencing ‘unsettled’ conditions with showers and longer spells of rain.

One of the main drivers of this unseasonal weather is the Jet Stream, a band of strong winds that flows from west to east in the upper troposphere, which is behaving unusually.

While the it typically lies to the north of the UK in summer, it has recently shifted southwards. This has led to several changes in the weather patterns in the UK.

The Jet Stream is currently stuck in a position roughly south of the English Channel in a U-shape flow. The part of it associated with cooler Arctic air and areas of low pressure, is sitting over the UK, which is why the region is seeing so much rain in right now.

‘The reason the UK is not experiencing the heatwave is because the current pressure pattern puts the country in a dominant low pressure – the atmosphere is always trying to reach equilibrium and so we have a constant pattern of high and low pressures,’ said Dr Chloe Brimicombe, climate scientist and extreme heat researcher, University of Graz.

The UK is currently experiencing ‘unsettled’ conditions, with showers and longer spells of rain(Picture: Reuters)

However, just because the UK has been spared this summer’s intense heat does not mean climate change is no longer a concern.

‘I think a lot of people in the UK are really questioning what’s going on with the weather now. Forty degrees last summer, this year our warmest June on record, but now it’s July and it feels like it’s raining every day,’ said Professor John Marsham, from the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds.

‘I like to think I’m fairly on top of weather news, but it’s actually getting very hard to keep up with the sheer number of extremes affecting people globally now, with extreme heat and floods affecting USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, Europe and others.’

Professor Marsham believes that people are now waking up to the fact that the human-made climate crisis is causing the catastrophic weather events seen across the globe.

‘Pollution from fossil fuels has heated our planet, and this makes not only heatwaves more likely and more intense, but also increases extreme rainfall and floods,’ said Professor Marsham. ‘The extreme weather is already leading to crop losses, high food prices and loss of life. This will continue to get worse, and wipe out entire ecosystems, unless we rapidly make the switch from fossil fuels to renewables and clean power.

‘If we don’t act soon, future news headlines won’t so much be about holidays, but about food prices, and food and water supplies.’

The jet stream, a large-scale wave-like wind pattern in the upper atmosphere that flows from west to east (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

If you looked outside right now, it would be hard to tell if we were in July or November.

According to the Met Office, the UK is currently experiencing ‘unsettled’ conditions with showers and longer spells of rain.

One of the main drivers of this unseasonal weather is the Jet Stream, a band of strong winds that flows from west to east in the upper troposphere, which is behaving unusually.

While the it typically lies to the north of the UK in summer, it has recently shifted southwards. This has led to several changes in the weather patterns in the UK.

The Jet Stream is currently stuck in a position roughly south of the English Channel in a U-shape flow. The part of it associated with cooler Arctic air and areas of low pressure, is sitting over the UK, which is why the region is seeing so much rain in right now.

‘The reason the UK is not experiencing the heatwave is because the current pressure pattern puts the country in a dominant low pressure – the atmosphere is always trying to reach equilibrium and so we have a constant pattern of high and low pressures,’ said Dr Chloe Brimicombe, climate scientist and extreme heat researcher, University of Graz.

The UK is currently experiencing ‘unsettled’ conditions, with showers and longer spells of rain(Picture: Reuters)

However, just because the UK has been spared this summer’s intense heat does not mean climate change is no longer a concern.

‘I think a lot of people in the UK are really questioning what’s going on with the weather now. Forty degrees last summer, this year our warmest June on record, but now it’s July and it feels like it’s raining every day,’ said Professor John Marsham, from the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds.

‘I like to think I’m fairly on top of weather news, but it’s actually getting very hard to keep up with the sheer number of extremes affecting people globally now, with extreme heat and floods affecting USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, Europe and others.’

Professor Marsham believes that people are now waking up to the fact that the human-made climate crisis is causing the catastrophic weather events seen across the globe.

‘Pollution from fossil fuels has heated our planet, and this makes not only heatwaves more likely and more intense, but also increases extreme rainfall and floods,’ said Professor Marsham. ‘The extreme weather is already leading to crop losses, high food prices and loss of life. This will continue to get worse, and wipe out entire ecosystems, unless we rapidly make the switch from fossil fuels to renewables and clean power.

‘If we don’t act soon, future news headlines won’t so much be about holidays, but about food prices, and food and water supplies.’