03/03/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. Well, Wednesday was a cold day and you know what?

The next few days aren't looking much warmer at all.

If you were watching Louise yesterday,

she was explaining just how chilly the beginning of March has been -

1st March, the first day of meteorological winter.

Look how the other three months -

February, January, December, going back in time -

how much milder it was.

So, now that technically Spring -

from a meteorologist's point of view - has just started,

it's actually turned quite a bit colder.

Very dramatic clouds recently as well.

These mammatus clouds, for example,

sent in by one of our weather watchers.

Where has the air been coming from in the last couple of days or so?

Well, you guessed it - all the way from the Arctic

and we're going to keep getting shots of cold air

through the course of the weekend.

We are on the cold side of the jet stream.

This is where the cold air sits,

this is where the milder air sits.

The good news is that at least on Thursday,

we're going to be in between weather systems.

One low-pressure here, another one there,

we're in this in between bit, so that means

that the weather isn't going to be that bad at all.

Most importantly, the winds are going to be lighter,

so it is going to feel just that little bit less cold.

But there still are some showers in the forecast,

possibly some wintry ones, during the course of Thursday -

particularly across more northern areas of the country.

Notice that there's another weather front

that's out there in the Atlantic, ready to come our way.

And that could prove troublesome as we go through Thursday night

and also into Friday morning.

We could see some snow.

It's still cold enough for some snow,

particularly across northern parts of England,

through Wales, the Midlands, possibly East Anglia.

So, if you're travelling first thing in the morning on Friday,

just be prepared - there could be some disruption.

Most of the snow will fall across the hills

and for many of us, it will be rain and sleet,

but through the day,

it will be quite a cold and rotten picture

for some of us across the southern half of the UK.

Then comes Saturday.

That area of low pressure with that weather front

starts to pull away

and we see isobars aligning themselves from North to South.

That means the wind will be coming in from the North as well,

but with that, further wintry showers anywhere from Scotland,

eastern parts of England, possibly the Midlands,

and down into the South.

Only four, five, six degrees for some of us.

The same picture happens on Sunday.

Still those North to South-oriented isobars,

so chilly winds, but they won't be quite so strong on Sunday

and I think we'll see fewer wintry showers.

This sort of situation,

where we get the wintry showers coming in from the North -

usually Western areas fare best and we get most of the sunshine.

But look at these temperatures - four, five, six,

seven degrees at most.

Let's have a look at the jet stream.

Remember, this is the warmer side of the jet stream,

this is the colder side of the jet stream.

You just get a sense that we're on that pivoting line,

that point of transitioning

to perhaps something slightly milder.

This high pressure may be a player with our weather

a little bit later on next week,

at least the middle part of the week.

High-pressure starts to build from the Atlantic,

bringing us settled conditions,

maybe frosty nights as well.

It may not last long,

cos from the latter part of next week,

that low-pressure from the Atlantic starts to come in,

bringing us stronger winds.

Perhaps we'd like something a little bit warmer,

but at the moment,

it looks as though that cold weather is here to stay,

so no change from yesterday.

In the last five years,