02/12/2015 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello there. The 1st of December is, of course,

the first day of meteorological winter

and, for some of us, we saw some appropriately wintry weather.

This was the view in the Highlands.

Thanks to our weather-watcher for sending that in.

Yes, we saw some snow in some parts of Scotland

but the snow turned back to rain

during the day as milder air

filtered its way north behind this weather front.

In fact, for the south, with a little bit of sunshine,

we saw temperatures as high as 15 degrees.

Very, very mild for the time of year.

A mild night to follow

but some wind and rain gets into Scotland

and Northern Ireland overnight,

that will drift its way southwards.

It'll get a bit stuck across Wales and northern England

through the day but it does leave behind

a pretty reasonable day across most of Scotland.

Bar the odd shower in the far north,

most places enjoying some decent spells of sunshine.

7 or 8 degrees and not particularly windy,

it looks like a good winter's afternoon,

as it will be across most of Northern Ireland.

Very different though for northern England.

Lots of cloud and outbreaks of rain,

mainly in the north-west.

Across Wales, it will be quite cloudy,

quite wet, some of the rain quite heavy

and we're going to have to watch

the rainfall totals here in particular

because they will be totting up in the next few days.

It's slightly drier in the Midlands, if rather cloudy,

and similar conditions across East Anglia, the south-east

and most of those southern counties,

very mild again, 12 or 13 degrees.

Through the evening, that band of rain

doesn't really move too far too quickly.

It's still there across Wales, parts of northern England.

It's mild south of that,

11, 12 degrees but quite cold further north,

a touch of frost in parts of Scotland,

maybe into Northern Ireland as well.

Now, let's look at the big picture for Thursday

because that weather front

is still there or thereabouts,

draped across that central swathe of the UK,

not really moving too far too quickly

so it will be another wet day,

particularly across Wales.

And some of that rain just creeping away

from northern England down into the Midlands

but south of that, again, it stays essentially dry,

cloudy, breezy and mild once again.

Temperatures here will be around about

12 or 13 degrees once again.

To the north of that, we are firmly

in single figures, 4 or 5 degrees there

for Glasgow, Belfast and Aberdeen.

Meanwhile, Thursday night into Friday,

that weather front finally gets a move-on,

pushes its way towards the near continent.

It should leave behind a reasonable day

for many parts of the UK.

Once we get rid of that rain from the south-east,

there should be some sunshine following along

behind but maybe not for all.

Quite cloudy through the afternoon,

I expect, across the far south-east.

More wind and rain showing its hand

later in the day across the far north and west.

And this weather front's got a lot of isobars

on either side of it so it will be a windy start

to the weekend and quite a wet one too.

The rain and the stronger winds

moving their way southwards and eastwards

all the while with something a bit drier

and brighter following on behind

but the next batch of rain already pushing into Scotland.

Some of that may turn

to a little bit of snow over higher ground.

Second part of the weekend,

yet another area of low pressure heads our way.

Lots of isobars again so it's going

to be quite windy for the second part of the weekend

as well and quite wet as well.

And again, some of that rain turns to snow

over the higher ground of Scotland.

But in the south, out of the rain,

it's relatively mild once again, 13 or 14 degrees.

And it's all being driven by a very strong jet stream

which will still be with us into the early part of next week,

a series of low pressure systems running along that.

At its core, the strength of winds probably 170mph or maybe more,

that should just ease off a little bit Tuesday-Wednesday which

will allow the jet stream to meander which allows high pressure to

build in from the south and that should settle things down

at least temporarily but it really doesn't last very long at all.

By Thursday or so, we're pretty much back to square one with

a powerful jet bringing further spells of wind and rain.

So the outlook, generally speaking, pretty unsettled.

It'll be windy or very windy with some rain at times

but as that temporary ridge of high pressure builds in,

we might just see a touch of frost.

Christmas Day may be the highlight of the holidays...

Oh, yes. ..but all that pressure in the kitchen...