26/12/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Thanks for joining me.

As forecast, Christmas Day was exceptionally mild across the UK.

I don't think we beat any records, we are still checking on that.

But it was close.

Temperatures around 100 years ago were 15.6 degrees.

Today we recorded in Scotland around 15.1.

There still might be one or two other stations that need

checking to confirm that that indeed was the highest.

But it is a selection of some of the temperatures we had today.

Hereford at 14, Hull at 14, London at around 13 degrees.

Now, there is a change heading our way.

This line of rain here, which will be crossing southern parts of

the UK, is actually a cold front.

Behind it, we have some showers and cold air coming in now.

A day too late for some of us.

Look at that, wintry showers across parts of Scotland.

This is still driven by Storm Conor

which will be passing way to the north of us.

But because it is such a large weather system,

it is still sending fierce winds into northern parts of Scotland.

So, on Boxing Day, there is an amber warning in force

for northern parts of Scotland.

Storm force winds there,

whereas in the south, a completely different story.

Look at that,

a lovely Boxing Day across most of England and Wales as well.

Lots of events taking place this day,

so the weather is certainly turning perfect for that.

Not so bad in Northern Ireland, but a bit breezy, maybe one or

two showers and windy weather there across the Northern Pennines.

And then into Scotland, very strong winds, gales around these coasts

and the storm force winds, at least for a time, for Orkney and Shetland.

So, the southern two-thirds of the country on Boxing Day

enjoying a fine day.

In the north, lots of showers and some very, very windy weather.

Now, we're going to keep the sunny skies but we are also going

to get some fog in the coming days.

The reason is that rather than low pressure,

high pressure starts to build across the UK.

This is Tuesday morning.

See some hues of blue here, so there will be a frost around,

a crisp start to the day.

A little bit more breeze in the north, so frost-free here.

But for England and Wales, after a foggy start, sunshine -

and cooler by day.

Temperatures only around six or seven degrees.

And this high pressure will stick around for a while.

And in the winter time, when the high pressure locks in,

stalls across one part of the continent, Europe, the UK,

we tend to get problems with fog

and where the fog lingers through the day, temperatures struggle.

Here is an example.

If the fog lingers, it could be only three degrees during the daytime.

So if you are travelling between Christmas and the New Year,

be prepared that it could be tricky,

especially in the morning on some country roads,

especially across England and Wales.

So the summary is, in the run-up to the New Year,

north-western parts of the UK are actually more likely to have

the breezier weather, some cloud and bits and pieces of rain.

That's the far north-west of the country.

But the bulk of England and Wales, certainly way south-east,

is looking quite sunny with that frost and fog in the morning.

And then as we head towards New Year's Eve, there will be a battle

happening across our part of the world.

Mild air tries to come back in again.

Cold air tries to win in from the north.

Which of these is going to win?

The thinking is, as we head into 2017, that colder air will win

but exactly how cold it is going to get

and whether we get much wintry weather with this

is still a little uncertain.

But things are going to finally cool off a little bit.