The SE-NW temperature thermal gradient across the UKUK The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. & Ireland during June is picked up well in this chart, even in the coarse reanalysis gridded data that I download and use from NCEPNCEP The United States National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) delivers national and global weather, water, climate and space weather guidance, forecasts, warnings and analyses to its Partners and External User Communities.. Sea surface temperatures in the North Sea may well have been at record levels during the month, but they still managed to dissect this area of warm anomalies in two.