08/02/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello, thanks for joining me.

We've been forecasting colder weather for the last few days.

Here's a quick summary from midweek onwards.

You can't hang about for the next three and a half minutes.

A cold easterly wind setting in from tomorrow onwards,

particularly across eastern parts of the UK.

It will be pretty cloudy,

and maybe the first few flakes of snow arriving.

Here's the rest of the forecast.

So, into the early hours of Wednesday.

That weather front is still affecting eastern parts of the UK.

It was here a couple of days ago. Swept across the UK.

We had that awful rain early in the week and the gales.

Early on Wednesday, it's still very close to our shores

and it can't move any further eastwards

because of those easterly winds setting in.

So, through the early hours of Wednesday,

remaining pretty cloudy across many eastern areas of the UK.

Little spits and spots of rain.

But through Wednesday across the west, actually,

we've got some sunshine on the way.

So here, the weather isn't too cold.

You can see some of the winds here are still coming in from the south,

just about across Northern Ireland, so temperatures of 7 in Belfast,

but only 3 degrees, if that, in Norwich.

And across the North Sea, we're starting to see a few flurries

brought in by that easterly wind.

Now, Wednesday night into Thursday is going to be a cold one,

So first thing in the morning on Thursday

a real nip in the air across the UK.

This is what it looks like on Thursday from space.

This is the jet stream.

It's diving southwards and then northwards.

No weather fronts pushing through.

Big area of high pressure across this part of the planet.

And this is that blocking weather, that blocking high pressure here.

These winds here are closer to the ground.

So we had the upper-level winds of the jet stream earlier on.

These are the easterly winds

just, say, ten metres above the ground or so.

And they will be pushing in some flurries of snow

across eastern areas of the UK.

Now, the thinking is

probably the north-east of England, through Yorkshire,

maybe Lincolnshire,

there might be a few flakes or so through the Midlands,

but notice that the temperatures are now

also starting to drop across western areas as well.

Only 5 degrees. By Friday, that wind is a lot colder.

That high pressure is shooting those winds in our direction

and, again, it's these eastern counties here,

certainly across the Pennines,

I think a good chance of at least a dusting of snow here and there.

And briefly during the day

temperatures will be getting up to maybe 2 or 3 degrees.

And at most I think we could see scenes like this,

particularly across the hills,

and not exclusively across the hills.

Now, Saturday, something interesting happens.

Yes, we've got the high pressure and the easterlies,

but this little baby area of low pressure develops.

That basically means clouds develop, deeper clouds,

more potential for some rain and possibly some snow.

But also the winds will be dragged a little bit from the south,

so I think come Saturday, Sunday,

perhaps a slight rise in the temperature

and rather than just snow,

it could be a little bit of rain and snow mixing in

across those eastern counties.

But having said that, we still have to be prepared for some pure snow

at least through the rest of the weekend

and possibly into next week as well.

Now, next week, broadly speaking,

this is still pretty much the weather map.

Still the high pressure, still the easterly winds,

but there is a hint that later on next week,

rather than winds coming in from the east,

they'll be coming in perhaps from the south or the south-east,

so it could just about turn less cold.

But until then, let's be prepared for a little cold snap.