The British Isles located at 54◦N has historically had very unstable and hard to predict weather patterns due its location where five significantly different air masses converge and with influences from the Sub-polar Jet stream and North Atlantic Drift. Along with the additional complication of global warming potentially causing more extreme weather, meteorologists have been unable to agree on whether the UK has either a Maritime or Temperate climate.
As the British Isles is the point of confluence for five different air masses, the weather the area experiences at any given point is dependent on the relative strength of these air masses. The strongest air mass at any one time usually has its relative weather conditions prevailing over the conditions of the other air masses. The Artic maritime air mass from the North and Polar Maritime Air mass from the North West both bring wet and cold air, which often brings snow due to its route over large bodies of water. Another Maritime air mass is the tropical maritime air mass from the South West, which delivers warm, moist air with mild temperatures. When either of these three air masses have strong winds behind them, they strongly influence the weather of the British Isles and it could be said the weather is that of a maritime nature as these three air masses have travelled over large bodies of water. Equally when the tropical continental air mass from North Africa prevails in strength it delivers very dry and temperate weather to the British Isles, this is also true for the Polar Continental air mass from central Europe. It should be noted that temperate conditions from the Central European air mass are only true during summer months, as land gains and loses heat much faster than water; in summer central Europe can get very hot with little cooling influence from oceans which are far away, meaning the air mass will be very warm. However