30/12/2016 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello, there. It certainly was a cold start today on Thursday,

minus 3, minus 4, minus five,

but it did lead to some very picturesque scenery.

This was captured

by one of our weather watchers in Oxfordshire,

a lovely winter scene

with the frost on the trees,

some sunshine beating down, as well,

but the frost also on the roofs, on the hedges,

the fences and on the ground,

but where we saw the sunshine by daytime,

come the evening,

temperatures dropped away quite quickly

and we saw the fog reforming.

This is the view from one of our weather watchers in Derbyshire.

Now, the extent of the fog overnight

is open to some question marks,

cos some extra cloud is drifting in from the west,

so, by the end of the night,

I suspect East Anglia and the south-east

will see the worst of the fog,

which will lift slowly into low cloud,

or keep it quite grey or quite cold here.

Notice the south-westerly breeze

for Northern Ireland and Scotland -

that's going to keep temperatures on the mild side, actually,

around about 11 degrees for Glasgow and for Belfast,

but where the low cloud lingers, well, 5, 6, 7 degrees.

There'll be some breaks in the cloud,

mainly to the east side of higher ground -

but notice we do have a weather front in the north of Scotland,

that's bringing some rain,

and there is a bit of a breeze associated with that,

and it stays breezy through the evening.

That rain just drifts a little bit further south.

Elsewhere, a lot of dry but rather cloudy weather,

very patchy fog across the south-western quadrant of the UK,

but I don't think it'll be too much of an issue.

New Year's Eve itself -

well, that weather front's going to bring

some pretty wet weather across much of Scotland,

it'll drift south into Northern Ireland, as well -

maybe a little bit of rain to the north-west of England,

but the south-westerly breeze affecting much more of the UK,

so not quite so cold in the south and south-east.

We might even see double figures, temporarily.

And then, through the New Year's Eve evening,

that's where the front eventually clears away

from southern Scotland and Northern Ireland.

By midnight, it's probably across northern England

and into North Wales,

and it continues its journey ever southwards,

bringing some rain with it - but behind it,

some much colder air -

cold enough for some snow showers in northern Scotland

on New Year's Day - maybe not just northern Scotland,

the southern uplands could probably see some snow showers, as well,

but there is some spells of sunshine to be had,

but it's going to be a pretty grey day, I suspect,

across East Anglia and much of the Midlands and the south-east,

with cloud and rain, which eventually pulls away.

But we keep that northerly breeze going,

so, as we get towards Monday morning,

it's going to be cold

and it'll be quite frosty, as well.

Could be some icy patches around -

but, actually, Monday itself looks like a pretty reasonable day,

particularly in those inland areas.

A good deal of dry, bright and sunny weather to be had

after a frosty start.

A few showers coming in on that breeze,

mainly to coastal areas in the north, east and west,

and after that cold start, it'll be a cold day

in spite of some sunshine -

4, 5, 6 degrees, maybe 7 if you are lucky.

So, a cold start to Tuesday, but a cloudy day, I think,

a cloudier day overall.

There'll be a little bit of sunshine in the southernmost counties,

and maybe towards the eastern side of Scotland,

and a few showers on the western side of Scotland -

but, again, after a cold start, we are well into single figures.

It's 5, 6 or 7 degrees.

Now, what about the middle of next week?

Well, actually, there's quite a strong jet stream

coming out of the United States,

but once it gets to our side of the Atlantic,

it kind of splits, really, and really weakens off.

One arm goes to the north of the UK, one arm goes to the south,

so it's not really the jet stream that'll be influencing our weather

through the middle of the week,

it'll be this high in the middle of the Atlantic.

Remember, winds go clockwise around that high,

so we're going to import some relatively mild air

across most parts of the UK,

but I suspect it will be temporary,

temperatures probably only getting to 10 or 11 degrees,

and then, later on next week,

it looks like it'll be turning a good deal colder.

There'll be a brisk wind coming down from the north or north-west,

so it might bring some rain, at times,

but I suspect it will be cold enough for some wintry showers

mainly in the northern half of the UK.

I'll be back tomorrow night

with an update.