30/12/2015 Weather for the Week Ahead

There could be a slightly different look to the weather for the new year.

We close this year out, though, with yet another storm.

This area of cloud underwent rapid cyclogenesis, a weather bomb,

the pressure falling 24 millibars or more in just 24 hours, Storm Frank.

Because it's a deep area of low pressure, it's being steered

up towards Iceland, getting the full force of that storm.

But we've seen the winds picking up and some heavy rain moving in,

and it's the rain that continues to be the main concern,

especially for those flood-hit areas already,

so we have this amber rain warning from the Met Office.

The warning should expire by the morning across Northern Ireland

as the rain clears,

but we'll see those warnings continuing across south-west

Scotland, north-west England throughout

the morning as the rain continues.

The winds will gradually ease as the rain clears slowly towards the east,

allowing drier weather in the afternoon

and some showers for Scotland. It'll be drier for Northern Ireland.

It should eventually turn drier in Wales

and western parts of England, too.

That weather front will clear away overnight,

taking the rain away eventually,

and then for New Year's Eve we're into something a little different.

We'll find bands of showers particularly focused on that

weather front there.

We start the day generally dry and sunny,

and eastern areas should have a decent morning.

We'll see these bands of showers, though, coming into the west,

sliding across all areas later on in the day.

The showers are going to be heavy, there'll be some hail and thunder,

some snow over the hills

in the north, and here it'll start to feel a little bit colder.

We've got colder air beginning to

push in just in time for the clock to strike

midnight for the start of the new year,

milder air just getting pushed aside just for a little while.

But we have another area of low pressure coming our way,

this one not having the same impact as Storm Frank.

Indeed, it'll probably stay out to the south-west for a while.

A brief ridge of high pressure means a lot of dry weather

and some sunshine for New Year's Day,

the winds picking up out towards the west and the cloud thickening,

a little rain not far away for Northern Ireland,

south-west England by the end of the day.

So, we've got higher pressure towards the east, low pressure in the west.

This low pressure is going to become quite slow-moving. Around it,

there'll be some stronger winds and maybe a south-easterly wind

picking up across many parts of the UK

and bands of rain pushing up from the south-west.

But there's not as much warm air in this, so there won't be as much rain.

The rain won't be quite as heavy, and it's going to be mainly

focused on that area of low pressure as it runs northwards across the UK.

Behind that, another one comes in.

Notice everything is just a little bit further south.

The winds are still strong on Sunday, we'll still see some more rain,

particularly across the south-west of England and South Wales,

not quite so wet further north.

So, that's Sunday. Temperatures seven to eleven degrees.

Throughout most of the week,

we've had the jet stream in this sort of orientation,

drawing up some very warm but very wet air on its forward flank,

which is why we've had so much flooding.

As we move into the first week of January,

the jet stream is in a slightly different position.

It's more zonal, west-east, it's a little bit further south, and

the jet stream will steer areas of low pressure further south, as well.

Now, we'll get an undercut of colder air.

It'll feel a bit colder, as it should do at this time of the year.

Pressure's a bit higher in the north, it should be a bit drier.

Most of the rain is nearer the areas of low pressure,

nearer the southern half of the UK,

so we're a little different to what we're seeing right now.

I want futurism,

but not yesterday's futurism.

I want today's futurism for tomorrow.

I want Hollywood glamour and feathers and sequins

and glitter unicorns!