08/04/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Good evening. It's the time of day when we look forward at the trends

the weather is likely to exhibit in the next six to ten days.

Now, it's been typically April showery weather

during the day on Thursday, some dramatic skylines.

This was from Reading in Berkshire and we've had hail

and thunder and lightning thrown into the showers,

but they are starting to ease away now

and the night promises to be drier

for most of us, with lighter winds.

That'll be key, I think, tomorrow for how it feels.

But also overnight, it will allow some frost,

frost in the north and the west

and a touch of ground frost elsewhere as well

in the countryside. Possibly even a bit of fog first thing,

but that should clear quite quickly

and a much more promising start to the day, until the afternoon,

when the rain returns to Northern Ireland

and western fringes of the mainland,

but for the bulk of mainland Scotland, an awful lot of dry

and bright weather around, a little bit of sunshine,

lighter winds making it feel more pleasant

than it has in recent days.

Similarly so across northern England

and the bulk of England and Wales.

It's just, as you can see,

fringes like Pembrokeshire

into Anglesey, the Llyn Peninsula

and Cornwall starting to pick up the cloudier zone

with some patchy rain,

but with lengthier dry spells and lighter winds,

it won't feel as chilly as it has done the last two days.

As we go through Friday evening and overnight,

that progresses eastwards,

so a splatter of rain for many of us,

but it's followed by colder air,

so we could see a smattering of snow

over the Pennines and the Grampians before that clears away

and certainly so in the showers following on behind

through Northern Ireland, across Wales.

The south-west moors could see some wintry weather as well,

possibly into Staffordshire, the Peak District,

but there'll be some sunshine, of course, between those showers

and the sun is getting quite strong

at this time of year as well.

So if you're outside the wind in the sunshine,

outside the showers, pleasant enough.

But, obviously, it's a chilly day,

because the air is so cold.

Notice our weather system still stuck in the north on Sunday,

still there for the Northern Isles

and our low pressure is close by

to the south and west, so there will be some drier weather.

At the moment, it looks like it'll be in central areas,

but by that stage, we're starting to pick up an easterly wind.

That is something that will stay with us

in one shape or form for the next week or so, really,

because despite clearing our weather front away,

this low pressure anchors itself towards the south and the west.

Some fairly unusual weather at the moment,

because our jet stream,

as Tom was explaining yesterday,

is in what's called an omega block,

so you've got really cold air

diving across the United States,

then the southerly jet stream is pushing the warmer air northwards,

then we're on the cold side of the jet at the moment,

so we've got cold air pooling across the UK,

hence we get some rather big showers.

But it's unusual that you get this situation

where the jet stream ties in where we have the warm

and the cold air, but that's going to be quite significant,

because although we have cold air across the UK,

at this time of year, the sun is getting stronger,

as I might have mentioned, and that's warming the continent,

so as we start to pull in more of a south-easterly wind here

through the coming week, things will warm up,

slowly but surely, in the south.

But where we keep the more easterly wind coming over

what is a cold North Sea,

the sea is at its coldest at this time of year,

it will clearly stay chilly here, with temperatures below par.

With that low pressure close by,

that's going to continue to feed in showers

or longer spells of rain,

so it stays unsettled for the outlook,

with further showers around, some dramatic skylines,

but where you have the sunny spells

between the showers, it'll feel really quite warm in southern areas,

but there'll be some chilly nights, of course,

as the cloud melts away. Bye-bye.