05/01/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello there. It's been a quiet

start to the year weather-wise,

but so far this 2017

we've seen two faces of January.

One has been cloudy and rather mild

with outbreaks of light, patchy rain,

as you can see across the skyline of London.

The other, though, has been sparkling -

a real contrast.

Blue skies and sunshine by day

has led to cold nights,

hard frosts and some icy stretches first thing,

and it looks likely that that's what we'll see during Thursday.

After a hard, cold, frosty start,

the frost will slowly lift away

but the temperatures will struggle by day.

Still, the risk of a few isolated showers

through Lincolnshire and East Anglia,

slowly fading, and a southerly breeze

dragging in more cloud perhaps through

the south-west and into Northern Ireland.

Here, temperatures will peak

at around seven or eight Celsius,

but some lovely sunshine,

however it will feel cold with temperatures

just a few degrees above freezing.

All change as we move out of Thursday into Friday.

The winds swing round more

to a south-westerly direction,

and that's going to push in these weather fronts,

bringing yet more cloud and outbreaks of rain.

Now, there could be some heavier bursts

along west-facing coasts for a time.

Ahead of it, though,

we could see some dense fog patches

in the south-east corner, which we'll

need to keep a close eye on,

but as the cloud and the rain drifts its

way south and east, it drags in milder air,

and highs of 5-11 Celsius.

That front clears away

for the start of the weekend

and allows high pressure to build back in

across the south-west.

The potential for the second half

of the weekend for weather fronts

to topple across the extreme top,

but for the weekend, it's not looking too bad at all.

It will be noticeably milder.

There'll be a lot of cloud around and outbreaks of rain, again,

should be light and patchy,

just like that first photograph we showed you

earlier on in this show.

So, as we start off Saturday, then,

it will be a quiet start.

There will be a lot of cloud around.

Hopefully some breaks and some brightness,

but, more importantly, look at the temperatures,

6-11 Celsius, so a mild feel to the day.

There's a risk of, perhaps,

a slightly fresher breeze just toppling over

that higher pressure,

the isobars squeezing together

and a weather front bringing the risk,

perhaps, of some light, patchy rain

up into the extreme north and west.

So a breezier, showery day here,

but elsewhere a good deal of dry weather

in the story, perhaps rather cloudy,

but again staying pretty mild -

a similar feel to things, 8-11 Celsius.

As we move out of Sunday into Monday,

this area of high pressure

is going to be important,

because just where it sits will determine

what's going to happen with these weather fronts.

If it drifts off to the south-west,

it's going to allow

some wetter and windier weather

to arrive on Monday,

with the potential for some stronger winds

and some heavier rain,

and that leads us nicely into the

six-to-ten-day period.

The position of this high, then,

is all-important.

The jet stream looks likely to

speed up and become a little more organised

and drift up to the northern

half of the UK.

That's going to feed in

these low pressures,

moving in off the Atlantic.

There is the potential,

just like we were saying yesterday,

for the jet stream to sink

just that little bit further south,

which means that the unsettled weather

will also come a little further

south as well,

so this area of high pressure

will be pretty important

and there's still a level of

uncertainty as to just where

it's likely to sit.

But the chances are that

the wetter and windier weather

will always be to the further

north and west,

It'll be somewhat milder, cloudy

but largely dry to the south.

So, as we started off by saying,

the two faces of January are set to continue.