UNITED KINGDOM
(United Kingdom of Great Britain)

Great Britain, the island country located at the northwest coast of continental Europe. The United Kingdom includes all island of Great Britain which contains England, Wales and Scotland and also a northern part of the island of Ireland. The name Britain is sometimes used for designation of the United Kingdom in general. The capital - London which is among the leading world shopping, financial and cultural centers. Other large cities include Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester in England, Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, Swansea and Cardiff in Wales.

Great Britain traditionally is divided into highlands and a low zone. The line going from the mouth of the river of Exe in the southwest, from the line of the Yew, in the northeast, is rough expression of this division. The course of a 700-foot (213-meter) contour or the border dividing more ancient breeds in the North and the West from younger southeast thicknesses gives more exact instruction on the extent of the mountain area.

The climate of the United Kingdom is caused by its establishment within atmospheric circulation and from positions of its forms of a relief in relation to the sea. A regional variety exists, but borders of the main world climatic systems don't pass through the country. Marginal position of Britain between the European overland area in the east and constantly present rather warm Atlantic waters in the West subjects the country to air masses with various thermal and damp characteristics.

The main types of air masses, depending on their initial areas, are polar and tropical; along their route of journey, both polar, and tropical can be sea or continental. During the most part of year weather depends on the sequence of disorders within the average western countries which bring generally polar sea and sometimes tropical sea air. In the winter certain regions of high pressure in the east allow to bite polar continental air to rush across Great Britain. All these atmospheric systems, as a rule, quickly fluctuate on the trajectories and change both on frequency, and on seasons and also from year to year. The variability is characteristic of the British weather, and extreme conditions, though rare, can be very important for country life.

Polar sea winds which reach the United Kingdom in the winter create distribution of temperature which substantially doesn't depend on width. Thus, the run from the North on the South of an isotherm of January of 40 °F (4 °C) or the line of equal temperature from the coast on the South to the Isle of Wight betrays moderate influence of the winds which are blowing off the Atlantic Ocean in a northwest part of Scotland. In the summer polar sea air meets less often, and a difference in 9 ° latitudes and distance from the sea gain bigger value so temperature increases from the North on the South and from the coast within the country.