25/01/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. If you have seen the news in the last couple of days,

you will know all about the winter snowstorm in the United States.

It is now clearing away, moving away from eastern Canada as well.

It is going to cross the Atlantic, yes, it is heading our way.

But as it crosses the Atlantic, it becomes a different beast.

It starts to draw in warmth and moisture from the tropics,

that will warm it up.

So there is no snow in the forecast for the United Kingdom

but there is some pretty strong winds and some heavy rainfall to be had.

As we see that system come in from the Atlantic,

it draws in milder air with it so we can expect temperatures

to be a good few degrees above where they should be for this time of year.

We start Monday on a pretty mild note,

11 or 12 degrees in the north and west.

Something of an east-west split,

with western areas seeing cloud, wind and rain.

That slowly moves its way eastwards and begins to fizzle out

but many eastern areas having a reasonable day,

staying dry for longest in East Anglia and the south-east.

Probably hanging on to some sunshine, 12 or 13 degrees here.

It might turn fresher behind this second weather front which

will bring some rain to Northern Ireland through the afternoon.

That moves on to western Scotland.

It crosses northern England through the evening

and then the skies tend to clear.

It will turn chilly in comparison with recent nights

but nothing too untoward. By dawn we are down to five, six, seven degrees

in towns and cities. A little lower in rural spots.

But already that big low is beginning to show its hand,

wet and windy weather pushing in to the north and west.

Maybe a little snow over high ground for a time

but Tuesday is all about the strength of the wind

because it is gales or severe gales in the north and west.

Some very heavy rainfall, western Scotland

and the western side of England and Wales.

In Wales, we really do need to watch those rainfall totals

because they could be quite large.

On the face of it, it is a mild day, 12 or 13 degrees but in the wind

and the rain, not feeling great.

In the middle of the week, we still have trailing weather fronts across

the south of the UK, that could be problematic in terms of the rain.

A little low running its way across the north.

Another windy day for most parts

and outbreaks of rain across the south of the UK.

Some of that could be heavy. Rain in the north as well.

Again, it is 12 or 13 degrees on the face of it but it is wet

and it is windy as well.

It looks pretty windy on into Thursday.

Lots of isobars still on the chart.

But the further south and east you are, it is not going to be

such a bad day, it will be dry and bright for the most part.

Further north and west, we have this wind and rain moving in.

So it will be wet and windy once again in western Scotland,

into Northern Ireland.

Towards the south-east, it is largely dry and bright.

Might get 10 degrees out of the day but many other areas

it's seven, eight or nine.

Towards the end of the week and there are lots of isobars still

on the chart. There is this weather front across the north

and the west of the UK and that'll be bringing more wind and rain with it.

Western Scotland, Northern Ireland,

some of that will get into the western side of England and Wales.

The further south and east you are, it should stay essentially dry

but it looks rather cloudy by the end of the week.

So the jet stream is snaking its way across the northern hemisphere

through this week and on into next weekend.

It will bring spells of wind and rain with it, sometimes on the cold side

but I think most of the time will be on the warmer side.

Into next weekend, it remains quite changeable

so that means we will see some spells of wind and rain but,

generally speaking, we are looking at some pretty mild weather.

So the big pictures sees outbreaks of wind

and rain across the north and the west of the UK.

Some of the rain could be quite heavy,

the winds could be quite strong but towards the south and the east

and it looks like it should be that bit drier.

Not completely dry, there will be some rain at times.

If you need more details, there's plenty more

on the BBC weather website.