17/08/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. We've probably all spent longer than we normally would do

staring longingly at blue skies over Rio in the past week or so,

but we had skies to rival them on Tuesday.

Glorious blue skies across

the Highlands of Scotland in particular,

where we saw temperatures peak at 27 degrees,

only a few degrees behind those at Rio

and a warm day elsewhere across many western areas.

The warmth by day has been increasing

so it's not as chilly to start the days,

certainly the case on Wednesday.

Lovely sunshine warming things up for many,

but note rain spreads in by the afternoon

across much of Northern Ireland

and a few splashes of rain

out towards the far west, too.

Temperatures in the sunshine

could reach 27 Celsius

in the Midlands,

25-26 across northern parts of Scotland,

but, as I've hinted, we finish the day

with rain in Northern Ireland,

maybe the odd spot

in the islands of Western Scotland

and some thundery rain in Wales, south-west England

late in the afternoon and evening.

That continues through the night,

spreading across the southern counties.

That might be welcome news to gardeners,

where there's been little rainfall for a while now.

But note the temperatures -

much, much milder

and quite a humid start to Thursday morning.

The thundery rain could be hit and miss across southern areas

to begin with and most of it fizzles out

to leave one or two showers

through the afternoon.

A small chance of showers further north

and a bit more cloud around on Thursday

than we've been used to so far this week,

but still a pleasant day.

Temperatures down on what they have been,

but still into the 20s for many

away from these eastern coasts,

where we've got the wind

still coming in from the south-east.

That all changes as we go into the start of Friday.

Big looming area of low pressure,

it stays out to the west initially

so it allows us a bright start

across northern and eastern areas, but

a zone of rain will spread its way

northwards and eastwards.

I don't think anywhere

it will rain all day long,

brighter and showery weather following in its wake.

But the wind picks up,

the rain never really reaches the far north of Scotland.

Another fine day here,

but temperatures will be down on what we've been used to

so far this week and down on what they should be

for this time of year,

which leads us into the weekend

and if you are away camping this weekend,

this is a chart you don't want to see -

cover your eyes.

An unseasonably deep area of low pressure

spreading its way in,

strong to gale force winds wrapped around that.

The strongest the wind -

and this will probably be the biggest impact

from the weather on Saturday,

especially if you've got outdoor events planned -

will be across England and Wales,

especially further south.

It could touch gale force at times.

They will push through frequent showers,

some of which heavy and thundery,

but there'll be gaps between the showers.

Not a wash-out of a day, by any means,

and some of you may actually see

precious little showers at all.

But, as I said, windy and it stays windy,

England and Wales especially,

as we go through the night and into Sunday.

Some longer spells of rain

wrapped around these weather fronts

as we go through the day,

probably north-west England

and north Wales bearing the brunt.

Either side of that, sunshine and showers,

showers zipping across the sky further south

thanks to the strength of that breeze.

It does mean, though,

there'll be some sunshine in between.

We continue on that cooler trend through Sunday

as we do into the start of next week.

The low pressure pulls away.

We see an area of high pressure

try to build its way in.

It's not going to have a huge impact,

but it settles things down for Monday,

but with north-westerly winds,

it's not going to be overly warm.

And then, into next week,

it looks like the jet stream kicks into gear

so the dry weather we potentially start with

may not last too long.

Northern and western areas

prone to weather fronts

pushing their way through,

south and east more likely to stay that bit dry

and I'm ever the optimist -

there is a sign,

only a small sign at the moment,

that things could warm up a little bit towards the south-east corner

and I'll hold on to that bit of optimism

and bring you more tomorrow.