29/03/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

You know, there's huge uncertainty in the evolution of our weather

next weekend, as we'll see in a moment -

but one thing I'm confident about, we won't see anything quite as wild

as we've seen over the last day or so.

Let's have a quick recap courtesy of some of our weather-watchers

sending in their pictures - uprooted trees,

there was disruption to power supplies, of course,

there was flooding rains,

and some places saw some significant snowfall -

and perhaps you have your own tale to tell.

Katie, of course, was the culprit.

It tore right across the heart of the UK,

the heavy rains delivered by this swirl in the cloud,

the strongest winds to the south of the storm's centre -

but Katie has whistled out into the North Sea,

and things are returning back to normal, because in the wake of that,

OK, we've got some fronts coming in,

but nothing too severe,

and although there will be breezy conditions at times,

the winds shouldn't be too damaging, either.

This is the way we start the day on Tuesday -

sunshine and showers, a brisk old wind,

and some of these could be quite heavy,

but they shouldn't last all that long before some wetter

weather gets into parts of Wales and western England.

Some of the best of the sunshine actually further north -

there will be a peppering of showers,

wintry showers up over the Highlands of Scotland,

but nothing too extreme,

and there'll be some sunshine in between for Scotland

and Northern Ireland and northern England.

Temperatures at 6s and 7s, so, not desperately warm,

but in the sunshine, shouldn't feel too bad.

Some sunshine, too,

for eastern parts of England before this arc of wetter weather

spirals in across Wales and western England -

its exact position a little bit uncertain,

but there will be a bit of snow mixed in

up over the Welsh mountains - and quite a gusty wind, too.

So, the spell of wet and windy weather

quickly makes it way across other parts of England and Wales

before clearer skies follow on behind -

it could be quite a chilly, maybe a frosty start

in some places on Wednesday,

but bags of sunshine, actually, on offer on Wednesday,

and although there'll be a few showers dotted around,

many of us will be dry.

No heatwave, but in the sunshine, and with light winds,

it should feel pretty pleasant, I reckon.

That really does sum up things as we change the month.

Lighter winds, we'll always see some sunshine,

and there'll be a few April showers scattered around as well.

Mind you, the nights will still be quite chilly -

in actual fact, we'll see frost

across more northern and central parts of the UK,

so, gardeners take note of that -

we will see some pretty chilly nights.

How long does the drier weather last?

Well, across the more southern

and eastern areas it might last into the weekend, at least,

but further north-west this set of fronts comes in,

bringing a rather wet and windy end to the week

across Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Some heavy rain, some strong winds,

but not damaging winds, we think.

In contrast, further south and east it'll be drier,

it'll be brighter, it'll be warmer, too,

temperatures getting up into the low teens -

and it could well be that that front kind of stalls

across Scotland and Northern Ireland,

and it may begin to head back northwards again,

whereas, for England and Wales, another dry day,

and temperatures again on the rise,

the wind starting to come in off the near continent -

the near continent, at this time of year,

is beginning to warm up, so if you get those winds

coming in from the south-east, temperatures will rise.

How long's it going to last? Well, that all hinges on the jet stream.

You've got this little kink in the jet stream at the weekend,

that's delivering those warmer south-easterly winds.

However, it does look as if the jet's going to get a move on again,

supercharged out of the USA,

and that's probably going to iron out that kink in the jet stream,

which does mean that any warmth will probably be quite temporary.

Watch this space,

because the computer models are pretty uncertain,

but it's unlikely to last before that jet stream brings in more rain

from the west and temperatures will begin to ease down again.

I'll update you again tomorrow.