02/05/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Many of us were glad to see the back of the month of April.

We had everything bar the kitchen sink

thrown at us last week, didn't we?

Yes, we had rain, we had hail, even some snow,

as depicted by this fabulous weather-watcher's picture,

and widespread frost across the country.

However, change of month, change of weather type

and with this week we are going to gradually see a warming trend.

Perhaps into the weekend, temperatures into the low 20s -

way above the average for this time of year.

More on that in just a moment.

Let's get back to the here and now and for the remainder of

Bank Holiday Monday it looks likely that we will continue to see

some wet and windy weather pushing in from the west,

driving its way steadily south and east.

Some of that rain heavy on west-facing slopes

and the winds pretty strong as well.

Ahead of it, it'll stay dry for most of the day with rain

arriving in the south-east corner by the end of the afternoon.

Behind it, a trail of showers

making its way across Northern Ireland into parts of Scotland,

some of those showers quite intense but it will be milder than of late.

A slice of sunshine as the rain starts to ease

and not too many showers across northern England,

Wales and the south-west,

our weather front by the middle of the afternoon sitting through

Lincolnshire down into East Anglia and the south-east corner.

But those temperatures still on the mild side.

Now, the rain will ease away through the night and behind

we will see clearer skies across England

and Wales but the winds still remain a feature to the north and west.

We'll still keep some showers, some of them wintry

for a time through the night and they will

continue into Tuesday with high pressure building slowly but surely.

Highs generally on Tuesday of around 10 to 16 degrees,

a good deal of dry weather in the story.

The high pressure then moves across England and Wales,

allows for clearer skies

and a chilly night into the start of Wednesday morning

but pushes the weather front up into the north-west.

Most of the unsettled weather will sit here.

But that does mean that there is a potential,

first thing on Wednesday, to see a light frost,

perhaps the last of the frost we will see for quite some time.

But there will be some lovely spells of sunshine across England

and Wales and with a southerly wind,

temperatures will recover to highs of 17 degrees.

Wetter and windier weather continues up into the north-west

and that frontal system will slowly edge its way south

and east during Thursday but almost dying off in situ, really -

a band of cloud, the odd spot or two of rain by then.

Showers and breezy following on behind, dry, sunny and pleasantly

warm by now with highs of 19 to 20 degrees not out of the question.

As we move out of Thursday into Friday, we've got

high pressure centred over to Scandinavia and this area of

low pressure down into the south-west near Spain and Portugal.

The position of that low could be quite interesting as to whether

or how much it allows warm, moist air to move up from Africa.

But it does look on Friday as though things will stay relatively quiet,

relatively dry and relatively warm, really,

with highs of 20 degrees,

possibly warmer still as we move into Saturday.

But always the risk of the threat of perhaps something a little

more thundery as we move into the start of the weekend.

So this trend looks likely to continue

into the 8 to 10 day period, with high pressure into Scandinavia,

low down into the south-west and that's allowing that

warm, humid air to push up,

but maybe also responsible for sparking off a few

thundery downpours as those temperatures reach the mid-20s,

potentially, into that 6 to 10 day period.

So, a lot to look forward to over the next few days.