04/01/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello, there. Yes, I know it's early days,

but so far our January weather has not been too troubling.

We have seen winter features from day to day,

and, in actual fact,

with clear skies by day

leading to a hard frost through the night,

we've some beautiful Weather Watchers pictures sent in -

but, once the frost has lifted

and the ice has cleared,

we've had some glorious spells of sunshine, as well.

This was Tuesday afternoon

down in the south-west, in Cornwall -

certainly the place to be.

Some stormy skies further north and east,

and some rough seas, as well,

and it looks as though we will continue to see,

up into the north-east,

rough seas through the course of the day today.

Still a bit more of a breeze.

This weak weather front

continues to sink its way south and west.

It's not really producing that much in the way of rain.

A band of cloud, drizzly rain sinking south-west,

so, a slow improvement through the Midlands, North Wales,

Northern Ireland and anywhere north of that.

Beautiful blue sky and sunshine for much of Wednesday afternoon.

Always the risk of a few sharp showers

with that wind off the North Sea coast,

highs of 4 to 9 degrees,

but, with clear skies by day, that's going to lead to clear skies

through the night,

and temperatures again falling away really quite sharply.

Widely, even in towns and city centres,

temperatures close to or just below freezing,

so, in more rural spots,

we could see lows down to minus 5,

minus 6 degrees - maybe even lower,

so, it's going to be a bitterly cold start

to Thursday morning.

Hopefully, though, yet again with some blue sky and sunshine.

We need to keep an eye on some freezing fog patches,

and I will keep you posted on developments of that,

but through the day, dry, lots of sunshine coming through,

bit more of a breeze

and thicker cloud out to the west

because of these fronts that are likely to push in during Friday,

bringing some breezier conditions, yes -

outbreaks of rain steadily spilling south and east,

perhaps staying dry until daylight hours, though,

across much of the south-east corner.

It'll be windy with it - some of the rain quite heavy

across the north-west, and it will continue to sink south.

Top temperatures of around 7 to 11.

But as we move out of the weekend, that weather will clear

across the south, and things quieten down quite nicely.

High pressure hanging on into the south -

but it does look as though the weekend doesn't look to bad at all.

It'll be breezy,

and the strongest of the winds always the further north you are,

with a scattering of isolated showers,

but a largely dry day in the offing on Saturday,

6 to 11 degrees the high,

the winds perhaps strengthening a little more on Sunday,

and, because they're coming from a westerly direction,

always the risk of a few more showers

on exposed west-facing coasts,

but, again, a good deal of usable weather in the story.

So, what's happening, then,

in the longer six to ten day period?

Well, this is what we've had so far this January -

with high pressure dominating across much of the country

and lows up into the north,

and we've got this really rather unusual looking jet stream -

quite flabby - and we can all relate to that,

really, at this time of year,

and the jet stream is going to firm up over the next few days,

and it will become a little more organised

and a little more fast-moving.

That's going to allow these low pressures

to continue to dominate up into the north,

but the jet stream may well sink a little bit further south

in the longer six to ten day period, and if that happens,

the unsettled weather will also sink a little bit further south.

There is still a level of uncertainty

as to just where this high is sitting,

and the influence that's going to have

across central and southern parts of the UK,

but it does look as though things will get a little bit more mobile,

a little more unsettled in the longer term picture.

So, more unsettled weather into the north,

potentially drier further south.

I will, of course, firm up on the position of that high pressure,

if I can, over the next few days.

Until then, take care.