15/03/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Well, after our stormy winter,

we were all desperate for some spring sunshine and warmth,

and we've had that so far this week -

in fact, on Monday,

it was Dumfries and Galloway that had the lion's share of both,

with 16 Celsius in south-west Scotland

and plenty of blue sky and sunshine to go with it.

Different story, though, across parts of East Anglia -

on the north Norfolk coast,

just a disappointing 7 Celsius

with a stiff easterly wind,

and that wind still there during Tuesday,

driving in more cloud

and perhaps the odd spot or two of drizzle,

after a pretty murky start as well.

Hopefully, we'll see a slow improvement

into the afternoon,

but west will certainly remain best

in terms of sunshine and warmth -

again, we could see those temperatures

into the mid-teens.

Always colder along the North Sea coast,

where we keep the cloud, the drizzle,

and maybe some hill and coastal fog.

Now, as we move out of Tuesday into Wednesday,

we'll see a weather front

pushing in from the continent -

unusual, cos they normally come in from the Atlantic.

That's going to introduce more in the way of cloud

and, again, the cloud thick enough

for the odd spot or two of drizzle.

A bit of a nuisance - windscreen wipers on or off? -

but eventually, we'll see an improving picture

down to the south-east, more sunshine here.

We keep some sunshine into the north-west,

the cloud just sitting in-between.

The high pressure remains in the driving seat

throughout the week, so there's going to be

little significant rainfall in the weather story.

Still got that front there, a bit of a nuisance,

but eventually it will die away,

and we'll see a fair amount of cloud around

on Thursday, perhaps the best of the sunshine

reserved for the far south-west.

Temperatures starting to dip down a little

as the winds pick up further north.

The high pressure stays with us again into Friday,

but there will be a noticeable difference

in the feel of the weather story

across the north of the country,

with winds freshening up from a north-westerly,

then temperatures are going to struggle

in comparison to earlier on in the week.

The south-west, perhaps,

seeing the best of the sunshine,

and look - likely to see temperatures

generally at around 6-9 degrees.

So a coolish feel, still.

As we move into the weekend,

still a largely dry theme,

still relatively settled.

That high pressure's starting to drift

its way westwards -

an indication of what's to come -

but the timings always subject to change.

Once high pressure

becomes firmly ensconced across the UK,

toppling it out of the way is not easy.

But, again, pretty windy

and cooler into the far north

as we move towards the weekend.

Now, as we move into next week -

that'll be the final week of March -

it looks as though we are going

to continue to see, again,

a good deal of dry weather

to start with in the story,

but there are signs

of things starting to change.

This has been the set-up so far,

with high pressure across the UK

and the Jet Stream diverted

across the north, and that's meant that

the low pressures have been

to the north of the Jet Stream,

or across the Mediterranean,

but it looks as though the high

is set to continue to drift

its way steadily westwards,

across to Northern Ireland,

and that may allow areas

of low pressure to move

into the north-east,

so we could eventually start to see

some outbreaks of rain

and a slow deterioration.

It is only a potential at the moment,

and it's certainly subject to change, so for late March,

we still keep the theme, generally,

of mainly dry with a few subtle changes,

potentially turning wetter

from the north-east eventually.

As I say, subject to change,

and Alex Deakin will have more on that tomorrow.