ABSTRACT
Lamb (1964) has observed, ‘Just as it is true that English history cannot be understood apart from world history, so to understand the English climate we must first learn what generates the various climates of the world’. Although Oke's (1992) scheme would place the British regions at the ‘local’ and ‘meso’ scales – negligible by global standards-Lamb's view retains its relevance, and a review of large-scale climatic processes provides the best foundation for the regional studies that follow.
