THE PICTURE ABOVE SHOWS A SATELLITE VIEW OF THE WEATHER AROUND THE WORLD AT 06:00UTC THIS MORNING.
It was obtained from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. To obtain the latest image of this type, click here.

UTC: the international standard
Please note that UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is used in MetLink reviews.
UTC replaced GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) as the international time standard some years ago. For practical purposes, there is no difference between UTC and GMT.
The official international way of writing times is to use the 24-hour clock and to put a colon between the hours and minutes. Thus, to give an example, 2.30pm is 14:30. Mid-day in the UK is 12:00UTC.

WHAT DO THE COLOURS SHOW?
The colours show temperatures. To find out how temperatures relate to colours, look at the scale beneath the picture. Land temperatures are indicated by the part of the scale above the caption “Synoptic obs”. Sea temperatures are indicated by the part of the scale above the caption “Sea surface”. Ice is shown in white. Clouds are shown in shades of grey, as on the part of the scale above the caption “Cloud top”.
TODAY:
Dark blue to purple – the coldest areas – in the Antarctic, northern North America and much of Asia – but green in some parts of the Antarctic, indicating comparatively mild weather, with temperatures as high as minus 10 to minus 15°C!
Dark orange to light brown – the warmest areas – in Australia, India and South-East Asia. Temperatures up to +30°C or maybe higher in some places. Remember 06:00UTC is mid-afternoon in Australia, the hottest time of day. To find out what time it is in other parts of the world, click here. To find out where there’s now daylight, click here.
Yellow and green – intermediate temperatures – in North America, Europe and Asia.
White – indicating sea-ice, i.e. frozen sea water – in the northern polar regions and around Antarctica. Notice that there is ice off Labrador and near Newfoundland (particularly in the Gulf of St Lawrence).

WHICH ARE THE SUNNIEST PARTS OF THE WORLD?
This satellite view shows that cloud amounts tend to be greatest in middle and high latitudes and near the equator. Amounts tend to be much smaller in the tropics and sub-tropics.
The clouds in middle and high latitudes are mostly associated with weather systems called depressions and anticyclones. The weather in the anticyclones of middle and high latitudes is generally fine and quiet but sometimes rather cloudy. The weather in the depressions of middle and high latitudes is generally cloudy, wet and windy.
The cloud near the equator is associated with a climatic feature called the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which brings cloud and heavy rain. This feature generally extends right round the globe but can be weak in some regions. The ITCZ migrates northwards to reach its most northerly position in July/August and then migrates southwards to reach its most southerly position in January/February. The rain falls mostly in the form of heavy showers.
TODAY:
Lots of ITCZ clouds today over the western Pacific, Indonesia and northern Australia. Some ITCZ activity, too, over South America and central and southern Africa. Not much ITCZ activity over the eastern Pacific and the ITCZ patchy over the Atlantic Ocean. Across the middle of the Indian Ocean, the ITCZ visible as a wavy line of clouds.
The clouds of mid-latitude depressions over the Southern Ocean, the North Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean, eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the north-east of North America and northern parts of the North Atlantic Ocean.

WHERE WAS THE BEST PLACE TO BE TODAY?
Do let the MetLink team know where in the world you wanted to be today, and why. To do so, click here.