Sea Lions | #BigBlueLive

Sea Lions - one of the stars of last week's Big Blue Live, they reside along the coastlines and islands of the Pacific Ocean. They actually live a pretty long life (between 20 and 30 years). They also use their adaptions to their advantage. It may well be pretty dark in the oceans but they find their way around with the help of their whiskers. 

Every one of their whiskers are loosely attached to their upper lip (scientists call their whiskers vibrissa) and can rotate around with the underwater current so they can sense their food nearby. It's not surprising that their diet mainly consists of seafood, from fish and squid to crabs and clams. Although one particular breed of sea lions actually eat seals, which isn't so good, but I guess it's all nature!

Their front flippers are also very clever! They help to regulate their temperature, constrict blood vessels when it's cold, constrict the blood vessel and increase the blood vessel size when it's warm. They can also manouver their flippers into the air to cool them off- something I reckon would be ideal in the height of the summer!

Sea Lions are just amazing creatures - they might not look like much but they're unbelievably clever, form incredible underwater spectacles and are just AMAZING! :)

Why has the UK had such hot weather this July?

June saw the weather across the UK as decidedly mixed with some good weather, but interspersed with this, we saw many spells of wet and windy weather. This was due to the jet stream being across the Atlantic, slightly further south than what is normal for this time of year. 

A major change took place just after the start of July as the jet stream took a dramatic shift northwards. This meant that the newly placed jet stream deflected the bad weather towards Ireland and Scandinavia. Then high pressure was dominant across the UK, in meteorological terms this is known as a blocked pattern. At this time of year, high pressure generally signals good weather and this coupled with the strength of sun can bring very high temperatures 

One thing unusual for the UK is that most of the UK has benefited from this good weather, and these high temperatures haven't been confined to one area. Also we have had very few thunderstorms in the last few weeks. Most people think that these always accompany the hot weather, in this case it is because the hot weather isn't from France or Spain. 

However this hot weather isn't good for everyone, the Met Office and Public Health England have been collaborating to provide advice through the Heat Health Watch. 

Compared to last year, this hot weather is in complete contrast when we experienced a succession of weather systems that we got from the Atlantic. There was no recorded change to the position of the jet stream it was a constant feature throughout the summer of 2012.