04/12/2015 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello there.

Heavy rain, snow, ice, gales were all in the forecast on Thursday.

For Friday, some respite from the rain

for parts of England and Wales,

particularly the Midlands, northern England

and North Wales, but later in the day,

we've got our next deep Atlantic low

rushing towards the north-west of the UK

and those tightly-packed isobars

mean that we are in for another spell

of gale-force winds, if not severe gale-force winds.

But as I mentioned, for many, it'll be dry and bright.

A little bit icy across Scotland to start

and here, as the day wears on,

we get the rain back but for many of us,

it is a drier picture.

It's mild as well and, of course,

that, for Scotland, means that the snow thaw

will continue so we've got the snow

and the rain falling into those river catchments.

So, again, there's a risk of flooding.

And some pretty lively winds

come the evening rush hour,

I think it'll be quite nasty on the roads.

60-70mph gusts of wind, possibly even more,

so there is the likelihood of some travel disruption on Friday evening,

across Scotland in particular, parts of Northern Ireland.

It's the combination of the rain and gales as well

which will make it pretty miserable.

And then through Friday evening and overnight,

that rain just keeps coming down

into already-saturated grounds and catchments

and slowly eases into northern England

and North Wales as we approach Saturday morning

so, unfortunately, it's more of the same.

It's mild at least but rather grey

in the south despite staying largely dry here.

However, we are concerned that the same sort

of areas where we've had flooding recently

will be prone to some very wet weather

this weekend with another area of low pressure

developing along that weather front

for Saturday night into Sunday.

So, we could have a steady 36 hours of rain,

potentially, for some parts of Northern Ireland,

Scotland, North Wales and northern England.

Those winds really whipping up as well

further south on Saturday so gale-force

or severe gale-force winds across many areas

so it's not going to feel particularly nice

considering temperatures will be above average

and particularly with the rain.

Then through Saturday night,

there could be a spell of snow across the far north again.

Eventually, it looks like that weather front

will slip southwards on Sunday.

It never goes very far away but it does tend to weaken,

the winds eventually easing a little bit

but not altogether but they do at least then allow us

a drier, slightly calmer day in the north.

But, look, that weather front's still with us

and you think you've seen enough of it

over the weekend but, unfortunately,

it looks set to come back again into the start

of the new week

so, yes, unfortunately, yet more rain to come.

Similar areas, it's still mild in the south

but there could be some snow for a time in the north

and again, a spell of fairly windy weather.

It doesn't look as windy as the weekend but nevertheless

the wind and the rain making for

a fairly miserable start to the week.

And you can see those

tightly-packed isobars in the north -

they're not too far away from our shores.

And we've still got that weather front

wiggling around across the UK on Tuesday

but after that, hopefully, just a sign

that things might quieten down just for a day or so.

But Tuesday, again, looks pretty unsettled.

Slightly chillier in the north

with a few wintry showers

falling to the hills of Scotland.

But as I mentioned, a little further ahead again,

we could have this brief ridge of high pressure.

Now, as it does,

it allows a slightly different wind direction across the UK.

Still those weather fronts close by but then that high,

if it does start to topple in across the UK,

it'll switch our wind direction more to a north-westerly

so that will allow this colder air to come around that high pressure,

pushing the milder air away for a while which means it'll be

chillier at least for a time.

But on the whole, even though

we're expecting that slightly quieter spell of weather,

lighter winds and feeling colder,

we then revert back to more unsettled weather towards the end of the week.

And between now and then,

lots to talk about,

the weather warnings

are on the website.