This week, the North Sea will remain under influence of low pressure areas coming from the Atlantic Ocean. This adds some uncertainty to the weather forecast, as the exact position of the low pressure system is still subject to change. Despite the influence of low pressure, there may still be occasional good working windows.
Deep low pressure is positioned over the Faroe Islands today and is expected to slowly move NE, while declining. Associated troughs and secondary low pressure areas affect Scandinavia, the North Sea and the UK today. On Wednesday, high pressure near the Azores extends a ridge over the North Sea, temporarily resulting in calmer conditions. Next Atlantic low pressure is expected to arrive over Scotland early Thursday, moving E across the northern North Sea later that day. It will gradually move further into southern Scandinavia early Friday. Another ridge of high pressure is expected to pass the North Sea on Friday and early Saturday, before more low pressure settles between Iceland and the UK.
Winds will generally fluctuate between 15 – 25 knots, with the highest winds on the southern flank of the passing troughs this Tuesday and coming night. Winds may temporarily reach up close to 30 knots just west of the Netherlands tonight, with significant waves reaching up between 2.5 and 3.0 meters. The rest of the North Sea will experience wave heights of around 2.0 meters or less. As previously mentioned high pressure ridge comes in on Wednesday, winds will gradually come down over the entire North Sea, dropping to 10 – 15 knots. The significant wave height is then expected to drop to between 0.5 and 1.5 meters in many places.
Next low pressure is expected to reach Scotland early Thursday, crossing the central North Sea afterwards. Opposite to what various weather models suggested in the last couple of days, low pressure is not expected to develop much while it travels across the North Sea. Winds are expected to pick up to 15 – 25 knots again, with the highest winds expected along the Dutch and German coastlines late Thursday. On Friday, high pressure near the Azores is expected to extend a ridge into the North Sea, leading to calmer conditions overall. As a result, a passing low pressure area over the northern North Sea will gradually decline. On the southern flank of this low, winds may still pick up to 20 – 25 knots with waves up to 3.0 meters over the central North Sea.
During the weekend, next complex low pressure settles between Iceland and the UK, likely affecting the North Sea as well. Due to uncertainty in the exact positioning of all the low pressure cores, it is still unclear to what extent it will affect the North Sea for now.
To conclude, despite low pressure systems continuing to affect the North Sea in the coming days and limiting some marine operations, there will be calmer periods in between that may offer good working windows.
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