28/12/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. Some wet weather and some snow in the forecast as we arrive at

the New Year - at the moment, no such problems,

but there's some frost and fog to worry about, fog a particular

issue across England and Wales as we go through the day on Wednesday.

There are warnings in force, and with a lot of people on the move,

I'm expecting some disruption,

so check out your BBC local radio station before you set off.

Most of the fog is closest to this area of high pressure across

England and Wales.

You'll notice further north-west there are more isobars.

That means breezier conditions for Scotland and Northern Ireland,

the odd spot of rain across the Western Highlands, otherwise dry.

But with lighter winds further south and east,

that fog will be loath to clear, and in some places it won't.

Having said that, many of us will enjoy some sunshine.

Western parts of England and Wales and parts of

Northern Ireland and Scotland seeing some brightness.

Temperatures, well, mid single figures typically,

milder than that across the far north of Scotland,

but where that fog lingers all day long across central and some

eastern parts of England, I'm expecting temperatures to

struggle to get above freezing all day long.

And that fog will probably become more extensive again into the night,

again closest to this area of high pressure, which is going nowhere

fast across these more southern and eastern parts of the UK.

Further north-west, we've got approaching weather fronts.

I think the persistent rain will hold off,

but still some drizzly stuff across the west of Scotland and

a notable breeze across many parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland.

It'll help to keep the temperature relatively high here,

double figures across the north-west of Scotland once more.

Further south and east, though, again that fog will be slow to lift,

particularly across some central and eastern areas.

Where that happens, once more it'll be particularly chilly.

A lot of low cloud around, in any case.

Now, as we go from Thursday into Friday, no great changes.

A bit more breeze across southern areas will help to lift the fog, and

that front is a little bit closer across the far north of

Scotland, so some of that rain turning rather more persistent here.

But ahead of that, a freshening south-westerly wind, and that will

introduce pretty mild air across

much of Northern Ireland and Scotland

and potentially across the north-east of Scotland,

up into the low to mid teens briefly.

But as we go from Friday into New Year's Eve,

we're going to start to see some changes,

certainly more breezy conditions across southern areas.

That will lift the last of the fog, we think,

and hopefully temperatures will start to recover.

Across the far north of Scotland,

that wet weather will start to spread its way southwards.

Now, the timing of that is still a little bit uncertain.

As we go from New Year's Eve into New Year's Day,

rain will start to head southwards on a cold front.

And because it's a cold front,

we're going to see colder air behind it, Arctic air, in fact, eventually,

and the showers across the north of Scotland will turn to snow.

That rain, though, heads its way down across England and Wales

during the course of New Year's Day, so some fairly wet weather around.

Now, that weather front will clear through,

and the Arctic air will spread southwards,

so for the first few days of January I'm expecting

a return to some fairly widespread frosts.

Fog probably not too much of an issue, at least initially, because

the winds will be fairly blustery coming down from the north.

Now, how long the cold air lasts is in question,

because, for a time at least,

the cold Arctic air could be cut off by some milder westerly conditions.

You see the yellows oozing in.

But that may only be temporary, because some forecast models

indicate that we'll see another push of cold Arctic air later next week.

So that's the big question mark in the forecast,

really - how long any milder interlude lasts.

But for many, it's a fairly chilly outlook.