13/12/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

We're less than two weeks now till the big day and if you're

dreaming of a white Christmas, don't give up hope just yet.

Things can change,

but at the moment there's not much snow on the horizon.

It's a fairly mild prospect with southerly winds coming up

across the UK, those winds carrying some fronts too,

so some rain around too over the next couple of days at least.

But it is mild, as confirmed by the yellow colours

across most of the UK as we start the day.

Away, that is, from the far north of Scotland, where we've got a bit of

blue on the map and a touch of frost across some northern Highland glens.

But further south it's milder, it's also damper -

that's the price we pay for central and southern parts of Scotland,

Northern Ireland and down through the spine of England as well.

Some bursts of rain around, nothing too persistent,

but one or two quite heavy bursts just in time for the rush hour,

actually, across the London area.

Some fog up over the high levels as well,

so not great driving conditions. Won't last forever, though -

it's looking a bit drier following on behind across

parts of Wales and the West Country. Hopefully some sunshine,

hitting mild double figures as we start the day.

As we go through Tuesday,

everything drifts its way slowly northeastwards.

Most of us will see a bit of dampness at some stage,

but the north of Scotland stays dry and we've got this slice of

brighter weather through central areas before more dampness

turns up across parts of Wales and maybe the Midlands.

Though getting the detail on that will be difficult,

there will be some rain around. Mild 12 or 13 in the south

and not as chilly as it has been further north.

The mild theme continues into the middle of the week.

We've got fronts strung out across western areas.

They're trying to push east, but really failing cos they're

coming up against a block of high pressure.

That word block is quite important,

I'll return to it later on in the broadcast.

A bit of a west-east split, really -

some pretty wet weather across parts of Northern Ireland,

western fringes of England and Wales and a gusty wind,

whereas further east we're going to start to draw in some drier air

off the near continent, so increasing amounts of sunshine.

Looks like a nice day, actually, across many central and

eastern areas and double-figure temperatures just about nationwide.

So, through the rest of this week that mild theme continues.

I think the cloudier skies will return.

Limited brightness, and there'll be further rain

across more western parts of the country

as further fronts try to come in off the Atlantic,

but again, they're going to grind to a halt because they come up

against that block of high pressure. And eventually

the high pressure takes over as we hit the weekend,

so I'm optimistic, actually, that we'll see rather more

in the way of sunshine as we hit the weekend.

Maybe some dampness clearing away from the south-east,

maybe some dampness across the far north-west, but in between,

plenty of fine and crisp weather if you're out and about

buying a Christmas tree, for example.

Temperatures not just as high,

so despite some blue sky and sunshine you'll probably need

a few layers, and overnight we could well see some frost returning.

Now, what about the jet stream? What's it up to?

Over the last couple of weeks it's been rather more active but,

as we've hinted at over the last couple of weeks, from kind of

mid-month onwards we were expecting a block to develop again,

preventing those fronts coming in off the Atlantic

and high pressure becoming dominant once more.

And certainly through the early part of next week,

underneath that high pressure, nearly all of us will be dry.

That's the easy bit.

Now, dry weather does not necessarily mean sunny weather,

that's the catch, because underneath that high there could be a fair

bit of moisture trapped, so some low cloud, perhaps some fog around.

But by the same token we could see some clearer areas,

which means frosty nights and also some sunshine by day.

I'm not going to kid you - getting that detail right

at this range will not be easy,

we're more confident about the mostly dry theme.

Certainly that's the story later on next week, with that crisp weather.

Snow unlikely, but as we approach Christmas

we could again see some changes.

Jay Wynne will update you again tomorrow.