21/02/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. It wasn't quite a record breaker,

but Monday certainly had many of us casting off the layers.

Temperatures boosted up to around 18 Celsius

in and around the London area. 18 is 64 in Fahrenheit.

And even across other parts of eastern Wales,

central and eastern England, into eastern Scotland,

we got temperatures well into the mid teens. So why so warm?

It's all down to the where the air came from.

Over the past few days we've seen an area of warm tropical maritime air

push from the Caribbean towards our shores,

making it feel more like May, rather than the middle of February.

However, February wants its weather back

and it will get it later this week.

We change our air mass, coming in from a northwesterly direction -

polar maritime air and you will notice the chill

compared with how we've started the week. That's a few days away.

At the moment, though, we've still got our winds

coming in from the west, off the Atlantic

and still to a certain degree

some tropical maritime air

running around the northern flank

of this high-pressure system

into the south of the UK,

but a weather front is remaining

through much of Tuesday,

bringing lots of cloud.

Misty around western coasts and hills

and occasional rain or drizzle.

Bright enough starts,

but cooler for parts of northern England,

Scotland and Northern Ireland,

but through the day we start to see wetter

and windier weather spread in from the west.

The temperatures still well above

where they should be for the time of year.

Not quite as warm as Monday,

but with breaks to the east of Wales,

to the Midlands and parts of eastern England,

we could still hit around 15 degrees.

That warm air is contained

within these two weather fronts

but through the night and into Wednesday

the focus is turned to an area of low pressure

pushing past the north of Scotland.

Strong to gale force

if not severe gale force winds

of 60 or 70 miles an hour gusts

across the far north

and northeast through Wednesday.

Bright with blustery showers,

some of those turning increasingly wintry

as cold air works its way southwards.

Still, though, in the milder conditions

across the southernmost parts of the UK,

here we stay with the cloud,

outbreaks of rain on and off throughout.

Temperatures, though, back where they should be

for the northern half of the country.

The one, though, to watch

this week is the what happens between Wednesday and Thursday.

Still a huge amount of uncertainty,

the exact depth of this low-pressure system, its exact track,

but it could bring some fairly stormy weather

across the UK, especially for England

and Wales on Thursday.

On the northern flank of it,

cold air digging in,

potentially bringing some significant snow,

so if you've got any plans

to be on the move on Thursday,

stay very close to the latest forecast

before you head off.

Those winds will certainly be noticeable

and around it we'll be dragging in colder

and colder air which will work

its way towards the south later in the day.

So that area of low pressure pushes off, the winds go into

a northerly direction, they ease down a little bit

and a chilly start to Friday.

But Friday compared with Thursday,

a good deal quieter,

the showers we see running down

in that northwesterly air flow will be

a mixture of rain, sleet and hill snow

and temperatures well down

on how we started the week

by, for some, a good 10 degrees.

So we finish Friday with quieter weather,

a ridge of high pressure

gives us some frost to take us

into the start of Saturday,

but as Atlantic air starts

to push its way in again,

hitting that cold air,

again there could be a spell of snow,

particularly on the hills of northern UK.

Most, though, wet and windy day

after a reasonably bright start.

Temperatures will be boosted

just a little bit, a little sliver of milder air,

colder conditions, then, for Sunday

and then we've got this alternating pattern,

all down to a fluctuating jet stream -

this big undulating pattern here,

it sets us up for the end of the month remaining fairly changeable,

so temperatures will be up and down from one day to the next.

We'll continue to see some spells

of wind and rain pushing its way

through and in those quieter moments

with the sunshine

there's occasional

night-time frost too.

Bye for now.