18/01/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. If you are fan of cold winter weather,

the past few winters in the UK have no doubt left you

waiting, waiting and wanting,

and you may have felt like moving somewhere else.

North America has seen winter storm after winter storm in recent weeks.

Still some blue showing up on the chart here

for the next couple of days.

We've had an ice storm - a dangerous and disruptive one -

moving out of the Midwest into the north-east of the USA

and parts of eastern Canada.

And spin the globe, to add insult to injury,

whilst our temperatures have been relatively mild,

we've seen snow smothering the Greek islands,

the cold pushing further west towards Iberia.

Much of continental Europe has temperatures

just a few degrees below average and some snowfall.

This is a recent scene from Italy.

It's all tantalisingly close, but not close enough.

Our winter so far has been relatively mild.

Only brief cold snaps. Of course, we had one last week

where some of us did see some snowfall,

but for many of us, it didn't last very long.

So overall, it's been mild, particularly in December,

only slightly in January so far,

and for much of the UK, it has been drier than average.

But, of course, we're just at the halfway stage.

There is still a lot of winter to get through.

But the cold air remains at a distance for most of us.

It is just around this area of high pressure

starting to just make an inroad

into parts of the far south-east of the UK

with below normal temperatures.

But for many of us around this area of high pressure this week,

the air is coming back up across the Atlantic

so it is reasonably mild.

In fact, very mild across parts of Scotland in particular.

And that's the set-up again for Wednesday.

Very frosty start through parts of south-east England

and East Anglia, but some sunshine to follow.

Another mild day in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Another mainly cloudy day for many of us

away from the sunshine in the south-east,

and where you've got the cloud,

you could have a bit of patchy rain or drizzle.

Not as much clear weather across southern parts of England

going through Wednesday night, so not as much frost to come,

so most of us going into Thursday morning will be frost free.

Plenty of cloud again.

You may get a bit of patchy drizzle,

But actually, most places, despite the cloud,

looking at a mainly dry story.

And a similar picture going into Friday.

What we're doing over the next few days

is just reducing those temperature differences.

Where we have had double figures in Scotland,

the temperature starts to come down.

where it's been just barely above freezing

in parts of southern England, the temperature creeps up a few degrees.

Picture for the weekend has high pressure with us.

Looks like some colder air will start to push back in

from the south across the UK,

so temperatures come down a little bit further,

particularly into Scotland.

Just five or six degrees for some of us on Saturday.

Certainly real change to come, though.

Perhaps a greater chance of getting some overnight frost,

a few fog patches around, but plenty of dry weather to come.

But then, we are eyeing up a change for the start of next week.

High pressure has been giving us this settled weather.

Still there for the weekend.

It's beginning to edge a little bit further south from us,

and especially the further north you are in the UK,

you fall under the influence of low pressure systems coming our way

quite quickly at the start of next week.

That means stronger winds, spells of wet weather to come

with some brighter interludes.

And that change then beginning to affect

northern parts of the UK -

initially Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Then edging little bit further south as we go through the week.

But there is a tussle next week between low pressure

to the north-west, high pressure to the south.

So the further south you are,

looks like you will hold on to the settled conditions

for longest next week.

But looks like even here, eventually, it will turn unsettled.

But no significant cold weather in the forecast now

until the end of January.

But if you do like the cold, there is still February.