Welcome to the Weekly Weather Update – your guide to the world’s oceans and seas. Each week, we highlight key marine weather patterns and analyse unusual or significant weather events. From calm spells under high pressure to tropical cyclones forming in equatorial waters, and from jet streams steering oceanic storms to anomalies in sea-surface temperature that shape global climate patterns. Here’s what this week’s weather has in store.
After a relatively calm week under influence of high pressure, low pressure brings unsettled conditions to the North Sea this week (see Figure 1). Deep Atlantic low pressure moves NE between the UK and Iceland towards the Norwegian Sea today, followed by a secondary low tomorrow. Low pressure continues to linger over the Norwegian Sea in the days after, slowly declining later during the weekend.
Strong frontal troughs cross the North Sea today through Friday. On Saturday, high pressure over the Azores extends a weak ridge via France towards Germany. This brings somewhat calmer conditions to many areas over the North Sea. On Sunday, next deep low pressure settles near Iceland with another frontal zone passing the North Sea. The wind speed surrounding these frontal troughs increases to 25-35 knots (6-8 Bft) over the southern and central parts of the North Sea. Roughly north of 57N, the wind may reach just over 40 knots on Thursday. This is also possible for the central and southern North Sea early Friday, on the southern flank of a passing trough.
During the weekend, winds will overall ease to 10-20 knots on Saturday, before picking up again on Sunday due to earlier mentioned frontal trough passing the area. The significant wave height increases to 3-5 meters over the central and northern part of the North Sea on Thursday and Friday, dropping to around 1 meter on Saturday.
Even more unsettled conditions can be expected over parts of the Norwegian Sea, especially on the eastern flank of lingering low pressure on Thursday and early Friday. The southwesterly winds will increase to 30-45 knots in the area just west of Norway. Without a sheltering effect of the UK, which the North Sea does profit from, the significant wave height reaches up to 5 to locally even 8 meters. On Friday, conditions will gradually improve from the west.
After a calm week, many marine operations may be impacted by the incoming unsettled conditions this week. Several low pressure areas and associated frontal zones will affect the North Sea and Norwegian Sea. It is recommended to monitor weather reports regularly to stay safe and informed throughout the coming week.
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