17/01/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. It looks like our weather won't be making any news headlines

this week. It is relatively quiet.

But if you are an avid follower of this forecast,

you will know this week could have been very different.

It could have been very cold.

There's some snow to be seen in Highland Scotland on Monday

but that's under threat this week, with temperatures at Aviemore

at eight Celsius, it will be a mild week here.

On Monday, the coldest air to be found was in the far south-east

of England, at Kent, where despite the sunshine, 4 Celsius.

At one stage last week it looked like this week, this cold air

would be pushing right up across the UK because early last week,

some of the computer forecasts were indicating that this week's

weather pattern would look like this.

That's to say, we'd have high pressure centred over Scandinavia.

The flow of air around that tapping into the cold continent and

bringing that cold air across the UK with sharp overnight frost.

But look, it didn't happen.

That's sometimes the case with longer range forecasts.

Those that early last week indicated that is

a possible solution gave up on that as we went through last week

and the forecast converged into this idea which is what is actually

happening, that high pressure wouldn't be over Scandinavia.

It is a little bit further south. That has an impact on our weather.

The flow of air around that high pressure actually for

many of us is coming up from the Atlantic and it is relatively

mild, double-figure temperatures in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

But it is just into the far south-east of England.

We're just tapping into some of that cold continental air.

So the reality is, this is Tuesday for this week's weather.

There will be a touch of frost but sunshine to follow

across East Anglia and south-east England in that cold

continental air.

Elsewhere, it is relatively mild, with the Atlantic influence,

particularly in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

With plenty of cloud and some patchy outbreaks of rain.

Under the clear skies, East Anglia and parts of southern England

on Tuesday night and into Wednesday...

Remember this is where the cold air is.

There will be a sharper frost,

temperatures well below freezing in places,

to start off on Wednesday, whereas elsewhere you've got cloud

cover, your temperatures hold up.

So the big picture for Wednesday still

has the high pressure close by but not centred over Scandinavia,

further south, so we still have that relatively mild Atlantic air

pushing in through Scotland and Northern Ireland with plenty cloud.

A lot of cloud for Northern England, for Midlands, for Wales,

the best of any sunshine towards the south in the colder air.

There is little change from Thursday, Friday into

Saturday because remember this is high pressure.

Thursday into Friday, spot the difference.

Saturday is coming up shortly,

you'll be struggling to see the difference.

High pressure keeping most places dry, a lot of cloud.

Count yourself lucky if you see much sunshine.

Temperatures just starting to come together.

Not the big extremes between North and South.

More like five, six, seven degrees at the start of the weekend.

But at the end of the weekend, and into the start of next week,

notice no big area of high pressure close by.

It is weakening away and low pressure is now on the

doorstep and that is going to become our weather player into next week.

As jet stream gets stronger, starts to push back in across the UK,

bringing those in areas of low pressure towards us and

changing our weather from settled high pressure.

You know what low pressure means, that means it turns unsettled.

The winds start to pick up, it'll be wetter at times as well.

Temperatures will be close to or perhaps

a little bit above normal, with that Atlantic flow.

No signs of any significant cold weather between now and

into the end of January.

But that could change and if it does, we'll let you know.