01/06/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. Oh, the irony. Wednesday, 1st June,

the official day of meteorological summer,

but just look at some of the weather we've been seeing this week.

This was Cambridgeshire yesterday -

lots of heavy rain, a cold, grey, dismal day, really,

for the last day of May,

but it was a different story further west,

and in Glasgow, well, they had the lion's share of both the sunshine

and the warmth, with temperatures

peaking at 24 Celsius, 75 Fahrenheit.

Underneath that cloud and rain - dismal.

Cambridge only 11 degrees.

It looks as though we keep the same weather pattern,

that front splitting the country in two,

with the best of the weather here.

Down into the southeast, more cloud,

with outbreaks of rain from time to time.

So we will see rain continuing to spill in

off the North Sea coast,

drifting its way steadily westwards,

still accompanied by that northerly breeze.

That'll make it feel cold,

particularly on exposed coasts,

and yet again, west will be best,

this time the northwest.

There will be a little more cloud

into Wales and the southwest.

We will see outbreaks of rain,

some of it moderate for a time,

spilling its way steadily south

into Thursday morning,

clearer skies further north again,

still that nagging northerly breeze,

with a lot of low cloud and poor visibility

close to the coast.

Not too cold a night - 8 to 13 degrees.

Will the weather story be any different

on Thursday? Probably not.

Again, it looks as though

that wind direction

still making it feel rather chilly

on exposed east coasts,

just a scattering of lighter showers

likely to the south,

but again, the best of the sunshine

the further north and west you are.

Temperatures again - 18 to 20 degrees

not out of the question.

As we move towards Friday and Saturday,

not that much in the way of change.

The best of the brightness the further north you are.

To the south, the cloud maybe thick enough for the odd spot of drizzle

from time to time.

But it looks as though we'll start to see

a change as we move into Sunday.

This area of low pressure

could be a player into the early half of next week,

but the high pressure still with us at the moment,

and on Sunday the isobars open out.

That means the winds will become lighter,

we lose that nagging northerly,

just dragging in more cloud on the northeast,

but elsewhere, the cloud should break up,

with more sunshine and warmth coming through,

with highs maybe of 22 degrees into the southeast corner.

So, what's been happening to our weather story recently?

The jet stream has been very weak

and, if anything, it's almost doubling back on itself.

That means if you're taking a long-haul flight

from the east coast of the US,

it could be a pretty slow, tedious journey.

It's not got the jet stream to drive it along.

That means the weather pattern has been quite stagnant -

high pressure in the northwest

driving in this cooler, cloudier weather conditions,

and also allowing us to be under the influence of this low pressure

near the Continent, so the southern half of the country

seeing some rain, but early into next week,

we could see a change. The high drifts off into Scandinavia,

more of a mobile westerly returns,

allowing that low pressure to move in.

That could drag in a plume of very warm, humid air

but it also means it could turn thundery. Take care.