15/03/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. When weather makes news, it's rarely a good thing,

which means we can probably relax in the UK at the moment.

There aren't many headlines about our weather,

except "Phew! What a scorcher!"

Another gorgeous day on Tuesday to have some sunshine.

Blossom backed by blue sky in North Yorkshire,

a lovely view of Ballycastle in County Antrim.

Mild air in place across the UK with high pressure.

That staying with us into Wednesday,

but we know it's a very different story the other side of the Atlantic

where weather is making big news,

with the north-east of the USA in the grip of a major snowstorm,

dumping, well, feet of snow in some spots,

particularly inland, away from the immediately east coast.

These were some of the views from Allentown in Pennsylvania

as Tuesday began, and although that system will clear,

this part of the world stays in the grip of cold air.

Now, we're not going to get that snowstorm,

but the cold coming out of North America will serve to strengthen

and flatten the jet stream

to make it take a more direct track towards the UK later this week

with more active weather systems on it.

So our weather, by the end of the week and into the weekend,

as a result will turn more active.

Temperatures come down - not on the scale of the north-east USA -

it'll be windier, it'll be wetter. Nothing too terrible, but again,

quite a change from what we have at the moment.

Because what we have at the moment

is high pressure keeping many places dry and settled.

Just bulging a little bit further north again as Wednesday begins.

There's a weather front in the west,

so damp and drizzly in parts of Northern Ireland.

Some rain moving in to Western Scotland.

A lot of cloud in the west of England and west Wales.

Elsewhere in England and Wales, cloud breaking,

some sunny spells coming through,

and of course, it's in the sunshine you get the higher temperatures,

maybe 16 or 17 Celsius.

Now, on Thursday, for Scotland and Northern Ireland initially,

a band of rain moving through,

wind picking up, showers following,

some of that reaching into parts of northern England and Wales.

But it's really Friday into the weekend.

High pressure flattened away southwards

as the stronger jet stream across the Atlantic

pushes these weather systems right at us.

So that means if you start Friday dry,

you probably won't end that way,

as we take rain from north-west to south-east across the UK,

and a stronger wind. A bit of snow showing up

in the Scottish hills.

Most of us are going to get rain, but some snow for the higher ground

across northern parts of the UK.

Bit of a break between weather systems on Saturday.

Could be damp, still, across southern areas.

Elsewhere, some sunny spells and showers.

Another push of wet weather at the start of Sunday

and then further showers following on behind,

and the risk of more persistent rain into western hills.

And then that takes us into the start of next week.

It's going to feel quite cool for the first few days of next week,

with sunshine and showers.

Cool because of where the area's coming from -

the isobars followed back towards the north-west,

that'll be the direction the air's coming from.

A cool direction, so another push as temperatures come down a few degrees

into the start of the next week, again with sunshine and showers.

But we are eyeing up, later next week,

another pattern change to our weather,

as we're eyeing up the return of high pressure

lurking in the wings to the west of us, in the Atlantic,

and we think that's going to become more of a player later in the week.

If that happens and high pressure returns,

things start to settle down again, and things turn drier for us.

Could be quite pleasant by day, but I have to flag up the possibility

of overnight frost.

Even that's not news, as gardeners know, at this time of year.

You can't drop your guard in March.

Although the weather is quite pleasant at the moment,

don't get ahead of the game just yet in the garden.