Powerful area of high pressure across Europe keeping the weather dry up until the new year
Powerful blocking high pressure sitting over Europe
The forecast across much of Europe heading into the new year looks dry including here at home in Ireland as a strong ridge of high pressure sits over much of Western and northern Europe.
This area of high pressure also known as a blocking high is the main reason for milder temperatures than normal across west Europe this weekend
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What is a blocking high pressure system?
Meteorologists refer to a 'blocking' high when a large area of high pressure becomes stationary, resulting in the blocking or redirection of low pressure systems.
A blocking high in this case results in very slow progression of weather fronts across the Ireland, as the high pressure blocks their movement.
So your normal wet and windy weather coming in from the west or the Atlantic is diverted away with much more settled weather.
Below as you can see on the radar across much of Europe there is a lot of dry weather as the blocking high sits in places.
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Western Europe including Ireland and the UK is one of the warmest places in Europe this weekend with temperatures between 10C to 14C this warmer airmass can be seen on the 850 hPa temperature Anomaly chart below.
850 hPa temperature Anomaly
At present the forecast over the first week of 2020 shows no real adverse weather conditions. Some models even hint that high pressure could build again after a brief unsettled spell of weather but time will tell.
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