Storm Oscar will have a surprising impact on the UK which could see the country sunning it through record heat.
Popular holiday hotspot, the Canary Islands, was forecast to be battered by fierce rain and winds of up to 55mph this week.
The Met Office warned that any holidaymakers would be better off packing their raincoats and wellies than sunscreen.
Spanish Agencia Estatal de Metereología (AEMET), the Spanish meteorological service, named the storm, which is set to arrive this week and bring sustained rain up until Wednesday.
However, from there, Storm Oscar was forecast to continue its path northwards, racing across the Atlantic ocean up towards the UK.
The low-pressure system will then crash into the high pressure currently squatting across the UK, which will produce a surprising effect that could see temperatures touching almost 30C later in the week.
Graham Madge, a spokesman for the Met Office told the Mirror: “Currently in the UK we have a very large area of high pressure which is very dense descending air, and that’s what’s giving us our largely fine conditions that we’re having at the moment.
“Storm Oscar will be working its way north and will push against that area of high pressure but its progress will be slowed.
“The high pressure is very dense air and it's difficult to budge it effectively.”
He said it wouldn't make very quick - or close - progress to the UK, but might make an incursion into the southwest that would see more moisture.
But, the main impact of the storm won’t be wind and rain to Britain - for once.
Mr Madge continued: “The main influence that Storm Oscar will have is not necessarily winds or rain. The way the area of low pressure is circulating means that as it draws closer to the UK, it will be pulling up a feed of warmer air coming in from continental Europe which will raise our temperatures.”
This is very different from the impact of a named storm in the Autumn, and the feed of warm, Iberian air could see temperatures “approach 28C, even a 29C by the end of this week”.
This could see the country enjoy the record-hottest day of the year so far.
However, Storm Oscar might not be entirely done there, as the southwest could also see an increased thunderstorm risk with the more humid air coming in.
Meanwhile, as temperatures are set to rise this week towards record highs this year, not all of the country will bathe in the nearly 30C heat.
Whilst the west coast has already seen temperatures in excess of 25C, the east coast of the UK has seen cloudy and cooler mornings that belatedly give way to the sun.
This vertical split in temperatures across the UK is due to how the air is circulating around the edge of high pressure currently straddling the UK.
In our hemisphere, air circulates around a high pressure bloc in a clockwise direction, and with the centre of it north west of Scotland, it’s leading to a feed of air coming right around the weather system and then feeding into the UK coast.
But this is tracking for a prolonged period across the sea, so is carrying moisture and is cooler.
It’s this that’s leading to the cooler and cloudier mornings and days for the east of the UK, than the west.
For example, Porthmadog has enjoyed repeated scorching hot days recently, whilst London wakes up to clouds every day.
