21/08/2014 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. We are definitely in the middle of a chilly week.

There are signs that early next week should be a little milder.

Milder, but not necessarily dry.

There will be some wet weather sweeping across the country.

There is a bit of rain about tonight.

An area of low pressure is drifting down from the North

so it is bringing with it a chilly air.

Because it is cloudy across northern Britain,

it won't be as cold here first thing in the morning.

Further south, sunny start but a really chilly

start across East Anglia and southeastern parts of the Midlands.

Through the day expect showers.

Maybe parts of eastern England will stay dry

but elsewhere there will be showers, a brisk breeze

and it will still be chilly even when the sun is out.

Temperatures only in the mid-to-high teens across the South East.

Heavy showers later across North East Scotland,

where temperatures might not reach 13 degrees.

Through the evening and night, the showers will push further south.

More cloud here during the course of Thursday night so it won't be

as cold here, but again, further north will see clearing skies

and again, certainly in rural areas, will be well down into single figures

as we start Friday.

For Friday, we're back to the set-up we have had for most of this

week, high-pressure to the West, low pressure to the East, drawing down

northerly winds and also bringing down a scattering of showers.

Outbreaks of rain early on from that weather front across the South East

and then we are left with a mix of sunshine and showers through Friday.

Probably not too many for Wales and South West England.

Northern Ireland, too, having a largely dry afternoon on Friday.

But because we are drawing down the air from the North,

temperatures continue to be below average, for many in the mid-teens.

Into the weekend, this area of high pressure is trying to move in

but it is a slow process.

The low is still nearby so there will still be showers,

particularly across eastern parts of the UK.

I fancy for many,

certainly across the West, it will be a dry and bright day on Saturday

with sunny spells and, after a chilly start,

those temperatures may be getting up to 19 or 20 degrees.

Really cold start on Sunday

but Sunday is the best bet for a dry day this weekend.

Behind me you will notice a band of blue,

that is a weather system starting to approach.

We will see serious changes in the broader weather patterns

through the weekend.

For much of this week, the jet stream has been fairly weak

and diving to the south of the UK, allowing the chilly air

to bring a mixture of sunshine and showers.

The change takes place, as we see the jet becomes more zonal, that is

what we call it when it fires in from the west and starts to pick up.

It may not be in exactly this position

but it will be increasing, and when it is like this it tends

to drag in areas of low pressure from the Atlantic.

That is what we are going to see as we go into Monday.

That rain we saw edging into western areas on Sunday is this

low-pressure system which looks like smothering much of the UK on Monday.

It may not rain all day, there will be brighter spells,

and temperatures may be a little bit higher as we start to see

the influence of those low pressures bringing slightly milder

air from the Atlantic. That is the set-up for a good part of next week.

It looks like low pressures will be close by or just to the

north of the UK.

High pressure to the South

so we will have westerly breezes rather than the northerly

breezes which is why it will be turning showery with fairly

brisk winds, but it also, crucially, won't be as cold,

particularly not at night.

More details for where you are,

particularly forecast focused over the long weekend online.