The unseasonably warm weather throughout Great Britain in the spring of 2003 was embraced by a population accustomed to the persistently overcast and damp conditions of a Northern European winter. Although still cold, February and March of that year had yielded an unusual number of sunny days, with relatively few rainstorms and periods of overcast skies. In April, Britons flocked to beach communities for the Easter holiday, taking advantage of temperatures reaching into the 70s, a generous 10 degrees above normal for that month. As one media report noted at the time, “An unexpected glimpse of sunshine could brighten the weekend for millions of people in southern England” [1]. Another concluded that not even Miami, Florida, could muster the same tropical conditions experienced in Northern Europe at times that year. Mother Nature, it seemed, was smiling on the island kingdom.

The explanation for Britain's good fortune was to be found in the presence of a stationary high-pressure weather system centered over Scandinavia, which was drawing in warmer air from farther afield and elevating temperatures across Europe. The warm weather that Easter weekend was enjoyed in several European capitals, where long-shut windows were opened to blue skies and winter layers removed. In the spring of most years, momentary glimpses of the Sun over Northern Europe are to be celebrated; this year, however, the Sun was here to stay.