07/04/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. Wednesday was a day of classic springtime weather

where we have cold air sitting on top of the UK,

a bit of heat from the sun

that drives the clouds,

spectacular clouds

and we get some vicious downpours

with some thunder and lightning.

Thursday is going to bring further showers,

but not necessarily in the same place

or the same type of showers.

This is what it looks like round about lunchtime.

In fact, this little mini weather front,

if anything, is going to cause cloudier skies,

because on Wednesday, we had sparkling blue skies,

a brief downpour, then sparkling blue skies again.

I think, overall,

Thursday is just going to be a lot more cloudy

across this southern portion of the UK and, actually,

a bigger chance of encountering some rain.

There will be some downpours developing during Thursday,

probably eastern areas most likely to catch the heaviest ones,

with some thunder and lightning,

all the way up into eastern Scotland, in fact,

but a lot better, I'm pleased to say, for Northern Ireland,

which really was plagued by very heavy showers

during the course of Wednesday.

Let's have a look at the weather, then,

Thursday night into Friday.

Still some showers carrying on for a time, at least.

The winds will fall light and with clearing skies,

that means that the temperatures will dip away.

In fact, there's a good chance of a bit of frost

developing across Scotland and parts of northern England,

possibly Northern Ireland too.

That takes us into Friday.

We've got yet another weather front heading our way.

This is it here, approaching the far west of the British Isles

during the course of Friday morning.

Initially, actually, the weather on Friday

isn't going to be bad at all.

You'll be waking up to some sunshine.

Yes, there might be still a few showers left over

from the previous day, but on balance,

not a bad start to the day or lunchtime.

Then, this weather front sweeps in and brings the rain

to places like Belfast, eventually Cardiff,

down into Cornwall, Devon and the rest of the West Country.

Then for the weekend,

if you've been following our outlooks for the week ahead,

we've been predicting that this area of low pressure

is going to establish itself

just to the south-west of our neighbourhood here.

Practically, it'll get stuck here

and that essentially means the weather will remain unsettled,

but doesn't necessarily mean it'll rain every single day.

Be prepared for rain, but there could be a bit of sunshine

and perhaps even a little bit of warmth,

because this low pressure will act to scoop up

some of this warmth that we're seeing across the continent here

and move it in the direction of the UK.

Yes, we're going to be on the cusp of the colder and milder air.

The reason why this weather pattern is stuck here

is because of something that we were talking about yesterday,

an omega block, so it's a pattern

that we recognise in the atmosphere

when the jet stream takes this omega shape

from the Greek alphabet here.

We have the unsettled, stuck weather across one side of the Atlantic

and, actually, we get the same thing

happening across North America,

also a plunge of colder air here

and they're getting their own unsettled weather,

whereas Greenland and Iceland are actually getting

a push of slightly milder air

and these big amplitudes in the jet stream kind of get stuck

and it takes a long time before they shift,

so this low that we've been schematically describing

for next week is still very much in our forecast, still features here,

and brings spells of cloud and rain, but also, remember,

a little bit of warmth coming in from the south as well,

so next week stays unsettled,

but it certainly won't be raining all the time.

There might even be some warmth to that sunshine.

Here's the summary for next week - sunshine and showers.

Remember, the nights will be chilly where the sky is clear

and just a hint of something a little bit warmer

across southern areas of the UK.

That's it, bye-bye.