01/04/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello there. Before we look ahead to early April, I thought we'd

look back at the weather in March,

and I'm going to show you a couple of charts from the Met Office.

The first one shows rainfall.

Brown is below-average rainfall for the month, so quite dry across

the north-west of Scotland and dry again in the south-east of England.

This could lead to impacts further down the line,

but December, January, February and March all drier than average.

Sunshine amounts - and you can see that it's been duller than

average in the south-west, but where it's been drier,

in the north-west of Scotland, it's also been sunnier,

and generally through the month the weather got better and better.

And we've got some sunshine this weekend, as well,

but we start the new month with some April showers.

Those fade away overnight,

and it should be a fine day to come on Sunday.

Showers from the word go across many western parts of England and

Wales, a few in the north-west of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Through the day, those showers could generate almost anywhere.

Slow-moving, they could be heavy and thundery.

There'll be some sunshine in-between the showers,

and with light winds it should feel quite warm,

although temperatures a little bit down on Friday's values.

Those showers push down across north-western parts of the UK,

across Northern Ireland and further into Scotland. Some heavy ones here.

A rash of sunshine and some showers across England and Wales,

coastal areas perhaps seeing fewer showers.

The showers arriving across East Anglia and the south-east more

during the afternoon, so it's here we'll find the highest

temperatures, possibly up to 16 degrees.

The showers fade away overnight. It turns quite chilly.

Those are the numbers in towns and cities, but in the

countryside maybe a pinch of frost for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

It'll warm up quickly, though, in the sunshine.

A nice day, really, on Sunday,

good spells of sunshine, a bit of cloud here and there,

just a very small chance of a shower across northern England.

The winds will be light,

and there's a bit of warmth in that sun at this time of the year,

so it'll feel pleasantly warm when the sun is out.

As we look ahead to the beginning of next week,

we've got that ridge of high pressure sitting across the UK.

It's getting squeezed, though, by weather fronts moving down

from the north-west on Monday.

So for Scotland and Northern Ireland, we'll find some stronger

winds here and we'll see a band of rain coming in from the north-west.

But England and Wales, it may be a bit warmer, actually, 16, 17 degrees

quite likely with a dry day on Monday and some sunshine at times.

But those weather fronts are going to be marching south-eastwards.

As they do so, they become very much weaker,

so again a little rain to come across the south-east of the UK,

with high pressure tending to build in behind that.

It could be cloudy for a good part of the day in the south-east.

There might still be one or two showers.

Many other areas are likely to be dry.

Some stronger winds in northern Scotland, though, and some rain

or showers not far away from here, but pleasant in the sunshine again.

And more sunshine to come on Wednesday, light winds for all but

the northern half of the UK, with some stronger winds in Scotland.

This is Atlantic air, and it may well bring some more cloud and

a few spots of rain onto some western hills.

There are weather fronts, bands of rain waiting out in

the Atlantic to arrive across our shores, but they're getting blocked

by this area of high pressure that builds in across the UK next week.

The centre of the high pressure will slowly migrate to become

centred across Germany during next weekend.

That will allow the wind direction to change.

We'll get more of a southerly breeze.

That should tend to lift the temperatures.

Again, for most places it'll be dry with some sunshine,

but we also open up the opportunity for some weather fronts to approach

the north-west, threatening some cloud and some rain. Goodbye.