10/02/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

At this time of year, we can often get weather stories

which reflect the battle between winter into spring,

and that's what we've seen this week

across the pond, in New York in the US.

On Wednesday, they had a high of 17 degrees.

By Thursday afternoon, a daytime high of just -2.

And it was accompanied by some snow as well.

This was the scene at Times Square

during the course of the day on Thursday.

Now, we've had a similar kind of story this week,

not quite as extreme.

Just like the UK, we tend to do things

in a slightly smaller fashion.

But out to the west, we had some blue sky, sunshine

and some spring warmth on Wednesday.

Cold out to the east.

And that cold air and cloud

filtered its way steadily westwards during Thursday,

so a real change,

a contrast in the feel of the story generally across the country.

And that's going to stay with us for the next few days.

The high pressure across Scandinavia

still in the driving seat at the moment,

drifting in this easterly breeze,

drifting a lot of cloud across the country

and making it feel pretty disappointing.

We're likely to continue to see a scattering of showers,

showers of rain to the coast.

Just head further inland, with a little bit of height,

there could be some sleet and snow.

But on Friday, there will be some sunshine around.

Scotland, Northern Ireland, perhaps parts of Pembrokeshire and Cornwall.

But it's going to be a cold day.

1 or 2 degrees on the east coast.

4 or 5 at the best further west.

Now, as we move out of Friday,

with those clear skies and sunshine across Scotland,

the temperatures will fall away quite sharply through the night.

Lows not out of the question of -10.

And at the same time, we're likely to see

a few more enhanced showers drifting further inland.

Now, this is when we could see a few centimetres of snow

settling at higher ground,

maybe even a significant dusting at lower levels.

But don't get too excited about it.

As we go through the day on Saturday,

the snow showers are likely to turn back to rain.

And it's still going to feel pretty cold and grey.

Still some sunshine, though,

likely across Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Very little change in the scenario

through the second half of the weekend.

A different day, the same old shade of grey, I'm afraid.

5 to 7 degrees, still rather breezy, though, as well.

You will need a few extra layers.

As we move into the start of a new working week,

on Monday, the breeze picks up a little

and potentially helps to stir up that cloud,

break it up a little across England and Wales.

And as a result, we'll start to see those temperatures climbing,

maybe up as high as 9 degrees across the south coast.

And that marks the indication of something changing a little.

Still the high pressure very much in control,

blocking these weather fronts and areas of low

out in the Atlantic, spiralling around,

but the isobars will squeeze together

and the wind may well change direction.

Let's just recap before we look at the longer six- to ten-day period.

We have seen this blocking high pressure across Scandinavia

driving in this easterly flow,

producing the cloud and the cool-ish wintry feel to things.

But the high pressure looks likely to sink south a little.

Still a level of uncertainty where that's going to be sitting,

but if it does sit close towards the Alps,

it'll drag in the southerly flow.

A milder source, certainly,

and that could potentially give us some spring-like weather,

dare I say it,

Maybe even the snowdrops putting in an appearance

with a little bit of sunshine.

However, clear skies by day

will still lead to the potential of some frost and some fog

overnight and first thing in the morning. Take care.