05/08/2014 Weather for the Week Ahead

Thanks for tuning in to our latest thoughts on the weather prospects

for the rest of the week, the weekend and beyond,

and there's something quite interesting in terms of the weather

heading our way for the second half of the weekend,

something that has a tropical origin.

We'll get to that in a moment, but first of all, the here and now,

and the weather's relatively quiet across the UK for the moment.

This is Tuesday. You'll notice quite a bit of sunshine

to start the day across many Eastern areas of the country.

But if you live further West, from Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire,

into Wales, around the Irish Sea,

Northern Ireland and Southwestern Scotland in particular,

here it does look as though you may need your umbrella at some point.

Could even be a downpour. But it will be still quite warm,

25 in London, and even in Newcastle itself a pleasant 21 Celsius.

Now, Wednesday is going to be a very different day.

In fact, this big area of low pressure across the North Atlantic

is made up of smaller areas of low pressure,

and one of these is going to be sitting right on top of the UK

on Wednesday, and that effectively means lots of cloud and some rain.

You'll notice it's quite a big band of rain.

The rain is going to clear away eventually

from Wales and the South of England,

so by the time we get to the afternoon, the weather will improve.

There will be some sunshine,

but there could be some hefty showers here and there from time to time.

If you live in Eastern Scotland and Northern Scotland,

it may well rain right through the course of the afternoon.

And then we say goodbye to one area of low pressure here.

There's another one heading our way,

but we're in-between these areas of low pressure,

so that means a spell of much better weather on the way for Thursday.

So I think Thursday we say goodbye to the rain.

It moves out into the North Sea.

We're left with some sunshine, light winds as well.

It really should be a very pleasant day for most of us on Thursday,

with temperatures into the mid-20s across the Southeast,

in Scotland more like 18 degrees,

so a really nice day to come on Thursday.

And then, as we head into Friday, again it changes a little bit.

We lose that window of fine weather,

because this big area of low pressure is kind of driving the whole system

and shunting these smaller "lowlets", if you like, in our direction.

So as we head through Friday, there is a chance there will be some rain.

Remember that we're looking at quite a distant time into the future,

so the actual accuracy

of where the spells of rain will occur on Friday is still uncertain.

But there will be some rain around for sure towards the end of the week.

And then of course beyond that, even more uncertainty for Saturday.

This area of low pressure that drifts out from the South, from France,

is potentially going to bring some quite heavy rain

to some Eastern areas and quite gusty winds, as well.

You can see a big contrast between the weather here and here.

All it will take is for this area of low pressure to be a bit further West

and it will upset the weather across Yorkshire and the South of England.

So just bear in mind that there will be a lot of heavy rain

and some gusty winds around through the course of the weekend.

This is what's happening right now. Let me take you to the Tropics.

There's Hispaniola, Puerto Rico here, Cuba, the Bahamas.

This is Hurricane Bertha.

It's between the Bahamas here and Bermuda here.

It looks as though over the next few days it is actually going to weaken

back down to a tropical storm. It'll only be a hurricane briefly.

And then you can see the general drift of this storm

is in the direction of Europe, and not just Europe but in our direction.

So that means that indirectly...

If you were watching John Hammond yesterday,

he was explaining that indirectly that storm may affect us,

so be prepared, in this period, certainly round Sunday,

for some heavy rain, some gusty winds.

But it does look as though the weather is going to improve

once we're out of that storm's way.

Men of England, heirs of glory

Heroes of unwritten story...

Bert Middleton. Yes.

Do you trust him? Yes.

Then I should. No.

Cos the more he can't have you, the more he'll want you.

..Rise like lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number...