03/05/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. Spring is often a season torn between the past and the future.

Now, sometimes it likes to hang on to winter cold,

and that's what we saw last week,

temperatures struggling, frosty nights

and, yes, some of us saw some snow.

But at times, spring will also look to the future and give us a taste of

what's to come in the summer months as temperatures

go above normal for the time of year.

Helped by some sunshine, everything bursts into life,

and the lambs - and us - have a spring in our step.

And that's what's going to be happening this week as we transition

towards those warmer conditions as high pressure begins to build in.

And as we're going to see, the pressure pattern sets up

that we draw in warmer air our way. Not quite here yet, though.

There'll be a fresh feel to things during Tuesday, a lot of sunshine.

Showers, though, still for Northern Ireland and Scotland,

still falling as snow over the very highest hills in Scotland.

A few in England and Wales, but here they'll be very few and far between.

16 in the sunny spells in London,

closer to ten in the brisk breeze and showers in Glasgow.

A few of those showers

will continue to affect Scotland through Tuesday night,

but watch out across southern parts of England and parts of Wales,

where in the countryside, under light winds

and clear skies, temperatures will dip,

and still the potential as Wednesday begins here for a touch of frost.

Looking at the picture for Wednesday, Atlantic weather systems

still trying to have a go at us, but this one will struggle to

make much of an inroad across parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The breeze will freshen, more cloud coming in.

Western parts of Scotland, maybe the far

west of Northern Ireland will see outbreaks of rain.

Sunny spells for much of England and Wales,

and temperatures just heading up a few degrees.

So, the Atlantic influence may still be felt across parts of Scotland

and Northern Ireland on through this week

until it gives way at the weekend into next week,

whereas for the rest of the UK, the warmth is starting to come up

from the south around an area of high pressure.

Now, on Thursday that weather system we saw on Wednesday towards

the north-west of the UK, it's weakening to a band of cloud

and a few spots of rain as it tries to edge further south into that

area of high pressure, which is building in and holding firm.

Now, the pressure set-up at the end of the week is that high

pressure is to the east of us, low pressure to the south of us.

We're drawing in that warmer air from the Continent,

starting to push up across the UK. However, it's not all plain sailing.

Remember that area of low pressure to the south?

It may just start to feed in some energy towards us with the chance

of picking up one or two thundery downpours to end the day on Friday.

They become more of a feature potentially on Saturday.

A lot of uncertainty about the position of where that

rainfall may be and how heavy and possibly thundery it's going to be,

but the idea is that some of that will push its way further

northwards, particularly across the western side of the UK this weekend.

Always a chance, by the way, of an onshore flow towards the east coast.

There could be a lot of low cloud and mistiness.

That's something to be aware of. Now, that weather pattern again,

high pressure to the east of us, low pressure to the south,

drawing in the Continental warmth, continues into next week.

But it's not all plain sailing,

because the position of that low pressure throwing up

bits of energy towards us

does increase the potential for picking up some heavy downpours.

So, we know for the weekend into next week

it's going to be warmer, and that warmth is pushing its way north.

There'll be some sunshine at times,

but don't go away from this thinking it's clear blue sky.

There is the potential for heavy downpours.

It's that word "warm" I think we'll notice the most,

and that transition to that spring

and early-summer warmth is what we'll be talking about the most

and probably will welcome the most. That's it for now. Bye-bye.