02/05/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

April may be behind us now but the effect of just how dry a month

it has been for many parts of the UK will be felt for a while yet.

There isn't a huge amount of

rainfall in the forecast this week.

Just how dry it's been?

In Edinburgh just 4mm of rain.

The driest April on record in Edinburgh.

There will be more statistics about dry April to come over

the next few days. We'll bring some of them to you here.

May started with some notable

weather in Northern Ireland.

It was the warmest

day of the year so far on Monday in

Northern Ireland and the warmest

weather of the year so far was enjoyed in

Scotland as well. Especially in the west.

It was cooler and cloudier down the east coast of Scotland and

that is a theme of the weather this week.

With high pressure to the north and

the northeast of the UK the

flow of air is coming in from the

east and that is a cool direction

and the air is coming in over a cool

North Sea at this time of year.

So we're not going to be particularly warm down the

eastern side of the UK.

These are the sea temperatures at the moment.

The air is cool in the first place

and cooled closer to that

sea temperature as it comes in to the east.

So the theme of the weather this week with high pressure in

control still plenty of dry weather to come.

Disappointment if you want something on the garden.

Coolest with that flow of air coming in from the east

across the North Sea.

Warmest in the west

especially when you get to see

some sunshine.

We see that again on Tuesday. More cloud in the east.

We get some showers running into eastern England,

a few into the Midlands and southern England.

In southern England perhaps the odd heavy one.

Western areas stay mainly dry.

And it will feel

quite warm in some sunshine but just 9, 10,

11 degrees close to that North Sea coast.

Going into Wednesday we're not changing that weather pattern.

Big areas of low pressure out in the Atlantic but they are being

blocked from coming our way by the

high pressure and this easterly flow across the UK.

More cloud through central and eastern England.

A few showers, maybe some drizzly rain.

A lot of sunshine on Wednesday in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Probably the lion's share of it coming through on Thursday as well.

More cloud further south but actually most places are

looking dry.

Still that temperature contrast between east and west.

Still very much there on Friday. If anything a bit breezier.

High pressure still anchored to the north of the UK.

A breezy day on Friday with that easterly wind feeling cool

near the North Sea coast.

In the shelter to the west it will be

a pleasant day and the vast majority is still dry.

Going into the weekend though low pressure in the Atlantic may

try to push a weather front towards us.

It's not going to have much success,

may just get the south and southwest of the UK.

For Saturday this is one to watch. May not even get this close to us.

For the bulk of the UK it's looking like

a dry day with those sunny spells once again.

Into next week nothing changing very

quickly but there may be

a subtle change of wind direction from an easterly to

a north-easterly coming into the UK and that could well be into next

week the start of the week a colder direction for some of us,

especially across northern parts of the UK.

It's high pressure so it is looking

mainly dry into next week.

Colder for a time especially across the northern half of the UK.

But there are indications low pressure from the Atlantic may

become a player again

in our weather and turn things more

unsettled later next week

as high pressure begins to recede.

We'll keep a close eye on that and keep you updated here.

Until then, mainly dry.