19/12/2015 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello there. We'll sneak a peek at the weather patterns

for Christmas time in just a moment.

Right now, though, we've got some extremely mild air across the UK.

Night-time temperatures

10 degrees above normal

means it's a very mild-looking picture

for Saturday, but there's some rain around

and this rain is quite slow moving.

It's stuck in the same sort of area all day.

So rain keeps going

across south-west England

and particularly Wales.

Heavy rain all mounting up there

over the hills of South Wales.

Much of the Midlands towards the south-east

will be dry, brightening up, a little sunshine.

Temperatures could hit 16 degrees,

extremely mild to the east of the Pennines.

Not much rain here, a bit wetter

over into the west of the Pennines

and across Scotland and Northern Ireland,

a little sunshine at times

and a scattering of showers too.

This rain band, though,

still producing some rain

into the night-time,

and pushing back northwards again.

The rain turning heavier too.

It may edge its way into Northern Ireland

and Scotland for a while,

but tending to clear away

out into the North Sea

right at the end of the night.

Another very mild night because of the cloud,

because of the wind

and also because of the rain.

That weather front, though,

clearing away on Sunday.

We're left with an area of low pressure

to the north of the UK

and its feeding around a showery airflow.

There'll be some sunshine around as well,

particularly across England and Wales,

a scattering of showers.

The showers much more frequent

for Scotland and Northern Ireland,

could be quite heavy as well.

There'll be a strong and blustery wind.

It'll be a bit cooler, I think,

for Scotland and Northern Ireland,

still some higher temperatures further south,

but all those numbers are above average

for the time of year.

Still very changeable weather, though,

as we head to the run-up to Christmas.

Zooming in from the Atlantic,

this next weather front will be packing

some strong to gale-force winds,

maybe even some severe gales

as well around coasts

and hills in the west.

Now, this rain could be heavy

especially over western hills

and there may well be

increasing river levels, I think,

by the end of the day.

The rain moves through fairly quickly

for most of us, except in the south

where it never really clears away.

Then it starts to push back

northwards again overnight

and into Tuesday.

Again, lots of isobars on the chart,

again, it's going to be very windy,

but for the most part,

it's a very mild wind.

The rain from overnight

does tend to clear away,

last of all from the south-east

of England in the afternoon

and then showers follow on behind.

Those temperatures, nine in the north

to 14 in the south.

And then Tuesday into Wednesday,

we've still got low pressure

sitting to the north of the UK,

but we're back into

this showery airstream as well.

The weather fronts focusing

some bands of showers,

could be quite heavy as well,

little sunshine at times,

maybe a touch of wintriness over the hills

and mountains of Scotland

as temperatures here a little bit lower,

about seven degrees or so, which is

about normal for this time of year, but what we're seeing as we head

into next week is this milder air sitting across the bulk of the UK.

There are signs of some colder air coming in from the other side

of the Atlantic, approaching northern parts of the UK

just in time for Christmas, all because the jet stream is buckling.

It's buckling a little bit further south,

so it's going to allow the colder air

to push into more northern parts of the UK

over the time that we looking at the Christmas festivities.

If there's a white Christmas,

it'll be over the hills

across Scotland, Northern Ireland,

northern England.

For much of England and Wales,

it's going to stay in the mild air.

South of the jet stream, then there could be some heavy rain.

Jet stream after Christmas moves northwards bringing the milder air

northwards across the country,

maybe a little bit drier in the south-east.