An unyielding dome of ‘anticyclonic gloom’ will block almost all sunlight as Britain trembles beneath a ‘dark and stagnant lull’.
Thick cloud and fog this week will dull the nation enough to flicker out solar devices and garden lights running on sunshine.
A huge high pressure ‘anticyclone’ wedged over the country shows no signs of budging until the end of October.
The stagnant dome will suck moisture from the Atlantic, churning out thick cloud and rolling fog.
Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said: “The high pressure is going to stick with us all the way until the middle of the week and into next week.
“If we get moisture trapped within the high pressure, and the air is so stagnant, we end up with cloud developing and sticking around and it can stay quite gloomy.
“There are some frontal systems toppling around, and it is the moisture in association with these that will be absorbed by the high pressure.
“Because the high pressure is sitting over us, that moisture is going to get trapped, and there is less to help clear that cloud away, so it is going to look quite grey and murky, and we will end up in an anticyclonic gloom.”
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Met Office meteorologists describe the dreary phenomenon as ‘dunkelflaute’, the German for ‘dark lull in winds’.
While sun-lovers will be moping under cloudy skies, others relying on solar devices risk them grinding to a halt.
The lack of sunlight threatens the renewable energy sector overall, experts warn, with little source of wind or solar energy.
Burkill said: “This is going to be a bit of an issue for the renewable energies sector.
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“There is a German term for this, dunkelflaute, which roughly translates to a dark lull in winds, and this means there won’t be much solar energy and there won’t be much wind energy.
“Even if you have solar lights in the garden, they might struggle through next week because of the lack of much sunshine.
“Through next week, high pressure is going to stick around, and it is going to be quite cloudy with some drizzly rain at times.”
Britons hoping to see blue skies this week will be lucky, forecasters warn, as a nationwide cloud blanket shields the sun.
Apart from scattered drizzle, Britain will stagnate in a week of rainless, windless and sunless skies.
Jim Dale, meteorologist for British Weather Services and co-author of ‘Surviving Extreme Weather’, said: “We are really stuck in this anticyclonic gloom for the next week, and I don’t see any real change until next weekend.
“In the meantime, it is going to be dull and gloomy, with only the odd bit of drizzle here and there, and anybody who does see a break of blue skies will be lucky.
“This is the sort of weather that is not good for morale.”
Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan added: “There is not much sign of any significant rainfall in the forecast for the coming week, and that is, in part, due to high pressure dominating the UK.
“It is a much cloudier and gloomier day to come for many parts of England and Wales on Monday.”