There will be sunny intervals but showers throughout the day
Autumn weather and colours in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The Met Office said it will be a “bright start” in Liverpool today, with a “scattering of showers”. Rain is set to hit Merseyside at around 12pm on Monday, September 8 and will be on and off until around 6pm.
Temperatures will reach highs of 20C and lows of 10C. The Met Office said in its North West forecast that it will be “breezy and feeling a little fresher”. Tuesday is set to be a bright and sunny day in Merseyside, with temperatures peaking at around 21C.
It will then turn cloudy by the evening, with temperatures reaching lows of 13C. Currently, the Met Office’s long-range weather forecast for mid-September onwards suggests a mixed outlook.
They said: “Low pressure is likely to dominate much of this period, bringing changeable weather conditions with showers or some longer spells of rain at times.
“There will likely be some drier, more settled interludes, particularly at the start of the period. Temperatures are likely to be close to average, perhaps turning warmer than average later in the period.”
The forecaster has said this summer has “almost certainly” been the UK’s warmest, as the mean average temperature for the season stood at 16.13C, based on data up to August 28.
If this season is confirmed as setting a new high for average temperature, it will mean all of the UK’s top five warmest summers will have occurred since the year 2000.
Autumn colours in Sefton Park (Image: Liverpool ECHO)
According to the Met Office, there are two ways to define the start of autumn, these are meteorological and astronomical. The meteorological system is used by meteorologists to ensure consistency in seasonal statistics and forecasting, this begins on September 1 and ends on November 30.
Astronomical autumn is determined by the Earth’s orbit around the Sun and its axial tilt. This typically begins on September 22 or 23. Autumn often brings unsettled weather to the UK, these changes are part of the “natural shift” as winter approaches.
There is a meteorological calendar that splits the year into four equal sections based on our Gregorian inherited calendar and there is the scientific astronomical look at the seasons that ties into the equinoxes and solstices.
The Earth’s tilt is 23.5 degrees relative to the plane of its orbit and means that, although one revolution of the planet takes 24 hours – it’s different depending on the time of year.
After the Autumn equinox, the days become shorter and the nights longer in the northern hemisphere, while those in the southern hemisphere begin to enjoy longer days and shorter nights.
While the equinox usually falls on September 22 or 23, it can occasionally land on September 24. This last occurred in 1931 and won’t happen again until 2303.