20/07/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Temperatures have been rising day by day over the last few days.

They have reached their peak - Tuesday afternoon,

some exceptionally hot weather across the UK.

We saw temperatures in south-western Scotland and Northern Ireland,

28 or 29 Celsius, but the peak was in Oxfordshire,

at Brize Norton - saw 34 Celsius.

And a very warm night to come,

but also overnight tonight, the breakdown begins.

We see some thundery showers moving in across Northern Ireland

into Scotland for the morning. Watch out for those.

Could be some torrential downpours with that.

Elsewhere, sunny spells and one or two sharp showers,

but notice the winds are coming in from the west,

so beginning to cool things down.

Temperatures in the south and west of the UK

probably about 10 degrees lower than they were on Tuesday.

But still, 22 Celsius in Cardiff is pleasant,

and there'll be spells of sunshine.

One or two sharp showers through the Midlands,

but in East Anglia and the south-east, it's 29 or 30 Celsius,

so the heat lingers here, and some eastern parts of England

will have another fairly warm afternoon.

Still the risk of heavy showers in northern England in the afternoon -

and the eastern side always that bit warmer than the western side.

Northern Ireland, it's a fresh afternoon.

Sunny spells, but there's those heavy showers, thundery downpours

moving their way ever northwards across Scotland.

Again, those temperatures down

by 7, 8, maybe even 10 degrees, in a few places.

And those thundery showers continue to work their way ever northwards

towards the northern isles through the small hours of Thursday.

By this stage, though, that westerly wind

will have dropped those temperatures across the board,

so it's a much fresher night, Wednesday night into Thursday,

but still quite warm in that south-eastern corner

at 17 or 18 Celsius.

But Thursday itself is a fairly quiet day,

all the heat's been shunted away towards the near Continent.

We've got this temporary ridge of high pressure,

which will bring a decent sort of day on Thursday.

A lot of dry weather to be had.

Maybe a shower or two towards the southeast

and maybe out west as well.

But for the bulk of the UK, it's a decent day -

light winds, sunny spells, and it's going to feel quite pleasant,

with temperatures widely into the low to possibly the middle 20s

in the south-eastern corner.

But there is some thicker cloud

gathering out west later on Thursday,

and that will bring a wet night to Northern Ireland.

And then that rain makes steady progress across the Irish Sea

to bring a little bit of rain through the day on Friday,

mainly to some northern and western parts.

There's that area of rain.

Not overly heavy, but some rain nonetheless.

Ahead of that, sunny spells and one or two showers,

but in the sunshine 25 Celsius,

and the south-eastern corner will be quite pleasant.

And even further west, once the rain moves through,

it's 21 or 22 Celsius.

Then into the weekend,

we've got a temporary ridge of high pressure.

Weather fronts, though, coming in from the west

and a noticeable breeze.

But a decent day for many areas on Saturday.

We've got patchy cloud, sunny spells, a lot of dry weather,

maybe a shower or two, but most places dry

and quite warm again - 25-26 Celsius

in the south-eastern corner.

Into the low 20s further west. Second part of the weekend -

well, weather fronts do come in on a breeze from the Atlantic,

and that's going to bring some cloud and some outbreaks of rain with it.

The further east you are on Sunday,

it should stay essentially fine and dry.

Still quite warm - 25-26 Celsius.

But that rain is making steady progress in from the west.

And on into next week.

It looks as if we're going to keep this westerly jet stream,

and that's going to bring areas of low pressure,

mainly towards the north and north-west of the United Kingdom.

So, in the north-west, closest to that area of low pressure,

you can expect some rain at times into next week.

But it's not going to rain all the time,

there will be some sunny intervals.

And there's also going to be a bit of a drop in those temperatures,

so it's going to feel just that little bit cooler.

Whereas in the southeast, further away from that area of low pressure,

we're going to be largely dry into next week.

There'll be some sunshine.

Still some warmth to be had in that sunshine,

but there's still a bit of a breeze at times.

So there's a lot going on.

We'll keep you up to date right here.

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