According to a survey the wet and miserable weather this Summer has been very costly to the rural parts of the UK. The wettest summer for 100 years has hit the countryside hard.

Less visitors to the country and to countryside attractions; events having to be cancelled; even less ice cream being sold. And for farmers, wet lands leading to damaged hooves and rising vet costs; having to buy more food in, rather than letting the animals graze in the fields; crops dying and rotting after too much rain. And the honey industry has suffered too as well as other foods.

So the question is, will all these losses lead to rising food costs in our shops and supermarkets? Time will tell.

Chris Tywydd

At the moment, the forecast for the beginning of September looks quite promising. Any low pressure system, should, on the whole, keep well away from Wales to begin with and so there is some decent weather ahead of us, with good sunny spells.

During the second week of September, there are signs that the jetstream will move southwards again and so bringing more unsettled conditions.

Otherwise, as was the case in August, the jetstream is not likely to stay in one place. The jetstream will be constantly moving to the north and then to the south etc etc, and so as well as wet and windy weather, there are periods of dry and settled weather on the horizon too!

chris tywydd 

As well as determining where rain-bearing weather systems go, the all important jet stream also controls the distribution of heat around our planet. During the next few days, the jet stream is set to head northwards over much of Europe. What this will do is scoop up a huge plume of hot air from Northern Africa and push it over most of the continent.

This will bring an extensive heatwave across Europe from this weekend onwards. Daytime temperatures in many areas south of Scandinavia will reach 35C with parts of the Med approaching 40C. Nighttime temperatures will struggle to dip much below 18C !

But will the Uk and Wales get hotter? At the moment it looks like a case of so near yet so far. The hot air will give central and eastern parts of England this weekend temperatures that might reach 30C. However the hot air will be swept away by a cold front on Sunday!

So hot in Greece and Italy and Turkey and most of the continent. But blame that jet stream once again for disappointing weather in the UK.

CHRIS TYWYDD

As the sun arrives Wales this weekend I'll be jetting off to the beautiful country that is Greece... Enjoy the Royal Welsh Show and I'll see you during the Eisteddfod week, a stone's throw away from our family home at Ogmore.

I'll be back blogging in a fortnight, until then, in Greek -

αντίο για τώρα

(Hwyl fawr am y tro!)

According to experts, tropical storm Chris...yes, Chris....is very weak and is acting like a zombie! That is, it's alive but it shouldn't be. The storm is in a part of the world that does not experience such activity and the temperature of the water is below 78C. As well as that, it's not a very well organised storm either.

Sums up Chris quite well!

chris tywydd

And this was the view from the house last night!

This was the scene on Ogmore beach over the weekend, while walking with the dog! No not snow, but sea foam, created by decomposing algae in the sea, combined with the tide and strong westerly winds.

chris tywydd

Not at the moment! If the jetstream moves to the north of the UK, then the weather will probably settle, with high pressure building and pushing the weather systems and the rain towards Scandinavia and Iceland rather than towards the UK.

But at the moment, it's not looking too promising! The unsettled weather is likely to stay with us for at least another two weeks. Although the speed of the jet stream does vary, which means that as it speeds up, there will be periods of wind and rain, but as it slows down, we are likely to see drier and brighter conditions.

We shall see.

chris tywydd