Why high pressure this weekend will make our cuppa taste better

Air is not weightless. In fact it weighs around 1.3 Kg per cubic metre at sea levelThe atmosphere bears down with a weight of 14.7 pounds for every square inch of the earth's surface (or 1kg per square cm) but this figure is not constant and varies according to the thermal structure of the air above our headsWe used to measure atmospheric pressure in millibars but the units now used are hecto-pascals hPa (they pretty much equate to each other)The highest pressure ever recorded in the UK dates back to 1902, when 1053.6 hPa was recorded in Aberdeen, Scotland. We are expecting a pressure of around 1047 hPa this weekendThe highest pressure ever reached on Earth is 1083.8 hPa over central Siberia during the winter of 1968.Will we notice any difference? The short answer is no but water will boil at around 101ºC at sea level instead of around 98ºC when atmospheric pressure is at 950 hPa in a typical low-pressure area. This means your cup of tea might just taste that little nice this weekend