26/02/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Good evening. It's time to bring you up to date with what

we think is going to happen throughout next week.

If you were watching Alex yesterday evening little has

changed but let's put a bit more detail on it.

First of all we've had this cold weather for much of the week

and that's going to continue for the next few days.

We've had some lovely shots from our Weather Watchers through today.

That mist in Cambria, the sunshine

in Hampshire through this afternoon.

The cloud did tend to bubble up a little bit

more into the afternoon but it will fade a little bit through the night.

Another chilly start, Friday.

Not as cold or as hard a frost as we've been used to

because we've got more cloud coming in.

A little bit of freezing fog

and still the risk of some icy patches first thing

because we've got a few showers falling onto frozen surfaces.

But this area of low pressure will bring more cloud to the

far south-west of England, western Wales and across Northern Ireland.

Actually giving Northern Ireland quite a few more showers

compared with what we've had during the day on Thursday.

But still pleasant enough in eastern areas despite only five or

six degrees Celsius. It's the light wind regime.

That low pressure bringing those showers through the day on Friday is

likely to pull away this weekend

joining forces with a fairly aggressive area of low

pressure across Iberia and southern parts of France and into the Alps.

It looks as if it could be quite destructive, that area of low

pressure, whilst across our shores the high-pressure will hold on.

The difference is we pick up that easterly wind. A little bit of

weather lore for you says that an easterly wind is no good to

man or beast, and it will feel much colder across the southern

half of the country despite some good spells of sunshine.

Further north lighter winds, but will feel more pleasant.

It's that wind-chill factor if you like coming into play this weekend.

Still a few wintry showers around, a little bit of early-morning frost

certainly, and fog, but that easterly wind

will really make it feel much colder again for the bulk of England

and Wales, particularly near the east coast.

And look what's starting to head in from the Atlantic

later in the day, much later in the day, into the new week actually.

So for the weekend, just to sum up,

it does look set to stay mainly dry.

Very useful weather if you want to get out and about.

Yes, it will feel cold, especially in the south,

because of the wind, which tends to ease on Monday.

A pretty raw start to the day with a sharp frost, Monday morning.

But come the end of Monday we've got our next set of weather

fronts moving in, initially turning to snow and it's the start

of the change. Early next week we

change our type. We go from that high-pressure

back to low-pressure rolling in off the Atlantic.

For the start of the week, as you saw, it's going to be very cold,

but eventually by the end of Monday we turn in to the milder regime.

It's because of the jet stream as Alex explained last night.

We've had this blocking system set up

and that strong northerly jet.

It starts to weaken a little bit later on Sunday and then something

more usual starts to pull its way in off the Atlantic.

The jet stream often comes in off the Atlantic,

a westerly direction

pulling areas of low pressure in. And it weakens at times.

That's when we'll see ridges of high pressure, and at times

we'll see a plunge of north-westerly winds

so it will get colder as well.

We'll have some colder snaps during the week ahead

but also some windier, wetter snaps.

As you can see, towards the latter part of next week as well

that next area of low pressure comes in.

Some tightly packed isobars, so some windy weather potentially

and then behind that again another cold snap of weather.

So it looks as if it will be more changeable,

the weather, as we move into the new week,

from the end of Monday onwards when we'll start to see systems,

low pressures moving in, bringing the wind and the rain.

Generally windier anyway because we haven't the high-pressure

and there will be some cold snaps of course in between those

spells of wet and windier weather.

But more business as usual as we approach the start of March.

They do say, "In like a lion, out like a lamb." So stay tuned.