17/12/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. I'm sure sledges aren't flying off the shelves,

it's been so mild, but a week is a long time in weather,

and it's still well over a week till Christmas,

and much can change, so stay tuned. Certainly a chilly start

to the weekend across some northern parts of the UK,

under clear skies, a touch of frost, but here the best of the sunshine.

Although the far northern isles will be quite windy,

with one or two quite blustery showers.

Persistent cloud, though,

across some southern and eastern parts of England.

Here, though, the mildest weather, up into double figures.

A fresher feel further north -

6s and 7s, quite a crisp-feeling day.

We'll see a change in the weather across Scotland overnight -

a splash of rain on that wind moving west to east.

At the other end of the UK, fog could again be a hazard,

with some areas of frost as well,

particularly across some central areas,

so you could see scenes like this on Sunday morning.

Where you wake up to fog, it could linger well on into the day,

keeping the temperatures down.

Hopefully some sunshine where you are,

although there will still be some persistent areas of cloud

across some southern counties.

The early rain across Scotland should clear away

and a milder wind for Northern Ireland and Scotland coming in

from the south-west, so temperatures bouncing back up.

We could reach 13, 14, maybe 15 degrees

across the far north-east of Scotland.

Chillier further south,

particularly where that fog lingers on.

And we could have similar problems with fog on Monday morning -

another chilly start to the day,

in fact, temperatures will be lower than they have been for many of us.

Another weather front approaching the far north-west

will bring some patchy rain, but that front is going nowhere fast.

It's quite a weak affair.

High pressure remains in control for many of us

as we go into Tuesday, but day on day,

temperatures just easing down a bit. It'll start to feel quite chilly

with a feed in off the near continent

across some southern areas,

and again, some frost and some fog around first thing

across some southern and central parts of the UK in particular.

Rain looming across the far north-west,

and that's going to herald a change in the weather

because although through the early part of next week

it'll be dry with those chilly conditions,

rain looks like turning up around about midweek -

quite a substantial change in the weather.

If you were watching yesterday,

I mentioned these lobes of cold Arctic air

pushing down across North America through this weekend,

some really bitter weather here

as the cold air meets warm tropical air

coming up from the Gulf of Mexico.

That kind of supercharges the jet stream

and the jet stream is what delivers our weather systems

across the Atlantic, and as the jet stream gets stronger,

so those weather systems become more active,

and that means wind and rain.

The first really active feature coming in from the west

during the course of Wednesday.

Now, the timing of this is a little bit uncertain,

but after a dry start,

expect some rain to be moving its way west to east

across the country during the course of the day on Wednesday,

though it might stay dry across some southern and eastern areas.

Pretty chilly too, particularly as that wind and rain arrive

from the west during the course of the day.

Now our thoughts turn to Christmas.

Computer models run several times a day,

and at the moment, most of them are indicating that

those active frontal systems will bring some rain and some wind

through the Christmas period.

However, in between those weather systems,

it could well be chilly enough for some frost,

and we could see some sunshine. That's less likely at the moment,

though things can change.

An outside bet is that the air will be cold enough

to turn some of the rain to snow.

Now, most of the computer models are not indicating this,

but one or two are, as you can see.

So all is not lost if you're dreaming of a white Christmas.

We will update you again tomorrow.