20/01/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Well, thanks for joining me.

Let's find out how much longer this cold weather is going to last.

We'll also have a detailed look at the jet stream

pattern across the UK a couple of times during the weather report.

This is the here and now, though.

So, cold weather across many areas of the UK, it's been a very,

very frosty couple of nights,

more to come tomorrow during the course of Wednesday.

Even some freezing fog lingering around,

for example across the West Midlands, perhaps parts of Wales.

But for most of us it's going to be a bright,

crisp day with temperatures around three to four degrees.

A little bit milder there in Northern Ireland, perhaps seven degrees.

And then Wednesday night into Thursday,

another widespread frost across the country,

some more fog forming, this time across eastern areas,

and I think that's pretty much it, the following nights will be little

bit milder, because a change already taking place early Thursday.

Weather fronts and the milder air here in the Atlantic

is ready to rush our way,

so that means that across many western areas

right from the word go on Thursday, at least the thinking is,

the clouds will increase, we'll have some light outbreaks of rain.

Southerly winds. That means that the temperatures might even get up to

double figures across one or two areas, for example there in Plymouth.

But the east of the country still hangs onto

some of that cold air left over. With some sunshine around as well,

pretty chilly there in Newcastle at three degrees.

Let's have our first look at the jet stream. For the end of the week.

You can see it's racing across the Atlantic,

sending these weather fronts in our direction,

so the spells of heavy rain, but then it moves towards the north,

so it's going to deflect most of the wind

and rain to the north-west of the British Isles.

But I think all of us, at least on Friday

while get a dose of some rain from this weather front here.

Let's have a look at this weather front in a little more detail,

So here it is in the morning it's crossing the country, it's a

cold front but the air behind it isn't that cold, it's actually

relatively mild, look at that, temperatures up to 11 in Belfast,

12 degrees in Plymouth.

And this mild bulge of air which is coming out of the southern climes

here, will establish itself across the UK during the course

of the weekend, shunting that colder, heavier, denser air towards the east.

So, through Saturday,

once one weather front is out of the way, we are in between

weather systems, and actually Saturday doesn't look too bad.

There will be some sunshine around particularly across eastern areas

here. It might be a little bit chilly in the morning

but probably frost-free for most of us.

11 degrees across the south

and then by the time we get to Sunday the weather fronts zip

to the north-west of us, bringing rain, possibly gale-force winds,

and look at that, we haven't seen that in a little while,

13 degrees for Belfast, that is going to feel on the mild side.

Now, let's talk about the jet stream later next week.

Because it is a bit of a complicated pattern.

The basic message is, from a pattern like this,

and this is the jet stream next week,

where you see the jet coming from the south, that's where our air is coming

from, our weather is coming from, this is where the mild air lives.

But the problem with this jet stream is - it's got quite a sharp dip here

and then a really enormous ridge there.

When you get this pattern, the jet stream can sometimes fall apart,

or at least the pattern falls apart and it can come back on itself

with the weather coming in from the east.

So there's just a risk that later next week

we could see some cold air coming in,

but it's more likely that the mild air is going to win,

coming in from the south-west being brought by that jet stream.

So I think the summary for next week, there'll be some spells of rain

but also windows of opportunity with some sunshine.

And generally speaking I think it is going to be frost-free.

So a change on the way in the next two or three days. Bye-bye.

It all started with the discovery of one enormous thigh bone.