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It's basically down to which pressure system is winning between the scandinavian low and azores high. If the scandinavian low is larger or more west than average then it'll dominate the UK's weather and pull in air from the arctic. Usually in the UK the icelandic low is dominant over winter and the azores high over summer and they all kinda scrap it out in spring/autumn. A dominant icelandic/azores pressure system will give us a SW prevailing wind and it's only a dominant scandinavian system that gives us a NE prevailing wind so that's why it's a bit rarer.
pic borrowed from the OU.
Colonel_of_Truth
Fox
Same here! Possibly not something to be proud of. Have flight radar on my phone to check on anything unusual so know the patterns fairly well. Or thought I did. Like you say if it typically varies on more of a day-to-day basis - or that's what I thought - turns out it's the time of year and in April and May it's quite common to have longer periods of northeasterly winds:
https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/wea.301
This study also concluded that "years with a low frequency of northeasterly winds in May are slightly more likely to precede a warmer summer than usual". So if it carries on like this next month it probably won't be a scorcher.