12/11/2015 Weather for the Week Ahead

Good evening. This time yesterday, Matt was telling you

about our first major storm of the season, which has been named Abigail.

We're naming, this season,

for those storms which we expect to have a significant impact on the UK.

And so we're firming up on details and since yesterday

the warning has been escalated to an amber by the Met Office.

You can see how ferocious that low pressure looks towards the north

and west of Scotland - really tightly-packed isobars -

so the winds are giving us real cause for concern.

The lack of wind, though, overnight,

means an unusually chilly start for the glens of Scotland -

a touch of frost here, some mist and fog elsewhere.

But actually, the day is shaping up to be quite a decent one

across central and eastern areas - the calm before the storm.

These winds that you see in the black discs indicate the gusts of wind,

already getting up to 50 or 60mph through

the Irish Sea into the afternoon.

So gales, or severe gales, starting to develop,

and coupled with that rain, some pretty miserable conditions

for a time if you're driving in that spell of rain.

It should move through quite quickly, giving us

another 10-20mm of rain for most of us.

But it's behind that rain band as it's moved out the way that

the winds escalate further.

Really very strong winds indeed - violent winds, potentially.

Storm force across the far north and west of Scotland,

hence the amber warning of gusts in excess of 80mph.

But actually, even the Central Lowlands could have gusts of 60,

possibly 70mph in the far north of Northern Ireland.

Enough to cause disruption to transport and power lines as well

and perhaps some structural damage, certainly in the far north.

Then, as it clears away,

its parting present is a spell of colder weather, just temporarily.

Still blowing a gale on Friday across most of the UK and storm-force winds

battering the north and bringing with them some really chilly air.

So it may feel like 7-13 on the thermometer -

rather, it may say that - but it will feel a lot colder.

And it will be cold enough for a smattering of snow,

potentially, on the Pennines in Cumbria.

It shouldn't stick, though.

Now, behind me we've also got another lump of cloud that we're watching.

This one here is Abigail, the one behind me

is Hurricane Kate currently.

It will weaken significantly before it comes to the shores of the UK but

that's the next area of low pressure, if you like, that we're watching.

This is Abigail moving across to Scandinavia.

As we move into Saturday, we say hello again to low pressure.

Slightly milder conditions again coming in from the south

and west, those winds, but an awful lot of rain.

Because it's of tropical origin, it will have a lot of moisture

and energy in there to give us some windy weather,

but the rain is going to cause real concern.

It has been so wet this week - we've already had flooding issues,

river levels are high,

so we need to really watch that on Saturday and Sunday.

That's after we've been battered by Abigail and had some rain from that,

because that weather front is still meandering around again on Sunday.

It looks like central northern areas will bear the brunt of that rain,

but obviously open to some uncertainty.

Now, that area of low pressure then moves away again into Monday

and its trailing weather front moves southwards,

so temporarily it'll turn just a bit chillier,

but drier and brighter to the north of that weather front.

And that's a trend that we're going to see continuing into next week.

So, by and large it remains unsettled.

We've got the jet stream,

those fast-blowing winds in the upper atmosphere which drive

the weather systems from west to east, generally, sat right above us.

So we can expect further spells of wet and windy weather,

but just occasionally some colder air will start to drift

across the northern half of the country.

But for most of us, for most of the time, it remains mild.

There's more details on that storm on the website.

# These streets are yours You can keep them... #

You wouldn't have found a doctor down here before.

Or a banker.

There's no reason this bonus might not be closer to TWO million.

I think you need me to come and speak to the police

about those abusive postcards you told me about.

I don't think anyone would want what I have.