21/02/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Worth staying with us here at the BBC Weather Centre

over next few days. A few twists and turns ahead.

A fascinating week of weather to come.

We start with some dramatic contrasts across the UK.

Very mild in the South, pretty cold in the North

and that is reflected in the temperatures -

4 to 14. Mind you,

through this week the cold air floods southwards.

It does look like being a pretty chilly week to come.

Not just yet across the southern half of the UK.

Sunday will be another mild day,

mild and cloudy and blustery.

Some dribs and drabs out West.

Further north we have a frontal zone of rain

for Northern Ireland, Southern Scotland

and some northern parts of England.

Some of it quite persistent and heavy.

To the North of that, though,

a wintry scene across the northern half of Scotland.

Frequent sleet and snow showers down to quite low levels.

Cold rain across Southern Scotland,

and parts of Northern Ireland.

Some pretty wet weather for Cumbria

and North Lancashire in particular.

To the South of that, just dribs and drabs

up over the high ground across Western areas

but further east mostly dry and if you see any brightness,

14, possibly 15 degrees.

It will be very windy, very blustery,

particularly across parts of Wales and the Midlands.

And then through the night everything heads Southwards

so eventually some pretty heavy rain will turn up

across Southern areas as we go into Monday.

There's some uncertainty about how quickly that clears away

but following on behind brighter skies -

with that colder air comes in as well

so, for many, temperatures will be

dropping by several degrees,

down into single figures just about nationwide

on Monday afternoon.

Further sleet and snow showers across

the northern part of Scotland in particular.

As we go into Tuesday most of us will be dry and bright,

if chilly, with some wintry showers

around exposed Northern areas.

A question mark still about that front across Southernmost areas.

It might just come back in again

across parts of the South West for example

through Tuesday night and into Wednesday,

grazing perhaps across other Southern coastal areas.

That's one to watch

but I think the majority as we go through

Wednesday will stay dry and bright.

After an early frost across Northern areas,

here we'll see the best of the sunshine but

there will be further wintry showers across the exposed Northern areas.

Temperatures staying in single figures.

The coldest air of course in the North.

Many of us having frosty nights.

This could well be the scene in the morning time

through the middle of the week

but some lovely sunshine to compensate.

As we look towards Thursday most of us again

will have a dry, bright, crisp day

but keep your eye on this front

trying to push in from the west.

It could cloud up across Northern Ireland

with some rain and perhaps

some sleet and snow as well.

The progress of that is very uncertain indeed.

It's all being steered by this area of low pressure

way out in the Atlantic.

Now, it looks as if that low pressure

will depend on the behaviour of the Jet Stream.

If the jet dipss its way Southwards,

it looks like taking the main energy

of that low pressure with it so

at the end of the week it could well be

that that low pressure is actually

down here by next weekend.

Now, its behaviour thereafter is very important

to the weather next weekend because

that low pressure could well run up

towards us and through the cold air

which will still be in place across

many parts of the UK and that gives us

forecasters a bit of a headache.

It certainly does look as if,

with low pressure around through next weekend,

it'll be cold and the potential

for some rain to turn to snow

as that low moves through,

so watch this space.

To sum up, coldest in the North, no surprises there,

some rain and just that heads up of the risk

of some snow through next weekend.

I'll update you again tomorrow.

The voice you're hearing is mine.

It was recorded last night after I had a few pints.

I'm doing this to show that...