Britain essentially sits at the centre of a giant, perpetual tornado as warm air from the Gulf Stream moving SW to NE, passing through the Channel and the North Sea, meets cold Arctic air moving NE to SW, but passing across the top of Scotland and down the Irish Sea.

We receive such clement weather for our latitude because the whole archipleago is basically right in eye of a huge atmospheric gyre that pushes away incoming pressure systems.

However, it's a double edged sword because if poor weather does make it past the barrier and into the eye, it's likely to get captured and buffeted back and forth between the coasts until it expends its energy and dissipates.