20/12/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

The weather is about to turn pretty wild as we enter

the stormiest period of the winter so far.

It has been so quiet lately, but I think a bit of a shock on the way.

Very strong winds, potentially, on the way and some heavy rain too.

Maybe even a little bit of snow, but not an awful lot.

Mostly across the hills.

Let's have a look at the reason for this stormy weather.

It is the jet stream roaring out of North America

making a beeline for the UK.

Underneath this jet stream what we get is

areas of low pressure spin up.

There is one low pressure here.

This is around about Christmas Eve time.

There is a bit of a lull and then this next one

will be heading our way as well.

It is too early to say exactly how big these lows will be,

how strong the wind will be

and where the worst of the weather will occur.

Probably north-western areas,

but that is still a little bit too far off.

In the short term, this is what we have got Tuesday morning.

Mild, damp, cloudy weather in the south.

A touch of frost across these northern areas.

The morning certainly nippy across Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Temperatures in many areas around freezing,

a little bit milder in the Western Isles.

That is a hint of things to come.

And then to the south of that across England and Wales,

it is still pretty cloudy.

The difference with Tuesday compared to Wednesday will be that

on Tuesday we are going to see some of that cloud breaking up,

so there will be some sunshine eventually coming through.

The morning will be grey and drizzly but then things will improve

a little bit. Look at the number of isobars here. That means no wind.

Look at the number of isobars there.

That is the screaming gale-force wind coming out of

the Atlantic Ocean and it is going to be pushing the first

weather front through during the course of Tuesday evening through

Northern Ireland and Western Scotland and then by the time

we get to the middle part of the week,

these weather fronts well and truly rushing through the UK.

Winds increasing pretty much everywhere, gales around

these north-western coasts, perhaps further west and south too.

But I think initially,

the weather not too blustery across the far south here.

I think it will still be probably cloudy and damp at times.

A lot of sunshine around too, it is not all bad.

There will be blustery cold showers around.

I think by the time we get to Thursday, Friday and through

the weekend, through Christmas that is when things turn interesting.

Let's have a look at the scene across our part of the world

as we enter Christmas Eve.

Here is that nasty area of low pressure with very strong

winds blowing around it.

There are tonnes of isobars there.

You can't really count them. They just go on and on.

Here are the gale-force winds.

The worst of the winds at this stage probably on Christmas Eve

somewhere around the north, north-west of the country.

Then a bit of a lull and then Christmas Day we'll see heavy rain

sweeping across the country and another area of low pressure.

This one could jog a little bit further south,

it might be a little bit further north so the details are uncertain.

But what is interesting is that between these areas of low

pressure because the winds spin around like so,

the back edges of the low pressure could see some cold air coming in.

So we might even have some hill snow particularly across northern areas.

So, yes, during the course of Christmas Day into Boxing Day

and beyond there is a possibility of some wintry, sleety weather

across northern areas of the UK.

But be prepared for disruptive winds potentially and some heavy rain

throughout this Christmas period.

Well worth checking the forecast regularly. Thanks for watching.