03/08/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. By this time next week our weather should look a little bit

more like we'd expect in August, with the wettest conditions

in the north and drier weather further south.

Which will be a big flip in our fortunes compared with what

we had on Wednesday this week.

Southern areas very, very soggy and the further north you looked,

the brighter the skies became,

particularly across northern Scotland where there was

a lot of sunshine as we went on through the day.

The satellite and radar picture confirms that -

largely sunny skies across northern Scotland,

more cloud further south,

although things brightened up for Northern Ireland,

northwest England,

and you can see down to the south there was a lot of rain,

some heavy bursts of rain.

But that pattern begins to change during Thursday

because, as this area of low pressure drifts across

the country, it's closest to the centre of the low,

ie in the north, where we'll see most of the showers,

these showers slow-moving, heavy, with some rumbles of

thunder, particularly for Scotland, the far north of England

and Northern Ireland. Further south, not as many showers

and the wind will be stronger, so if you do catch a shower

it should blow through quite quickly to reveal sunny spells.

Temperatures 18-22 degrees.

So, low pressure still in charge as we move out of Thursday

into Friday. The low drifting up to the northeast

and again it's closest to the centre of the low

where we'll see most of the showers, particularly across Scotland.

Some into Northern Ireland, northern England,

down into the Midlands, but generally

the further south you are, fewer showers, more sunshine.

Lighter winds at this stage. 16 in Glasgow,

23 in London.

The thing we would need to really settle things down

is high pressure. And that is sitting a long way out

to the west, but as we go into the start of the weekend

the bulge in the isobars here, this area of high pressure,

does begin to take a bit more control of our weather,

particularly in the south. Here a fair amount of dry

weather through the day on Saturday, still a fair few showers

up towards the north and northwest. As we move on in to Sunday,

it looks briefly like this area of high pressure

might be winning the battle. It might be settling things

down properly but it isn't going to win because this area of

low pressure will start to move its way in from the Atlantic,

so, yes, a spell of fine weather on Sunday after what could be

quite a cool start in places. And as we go on through the day

we will then see some outbreaks of rain pushing in across

Northern Ireland. That rain is expected to move

erratically eastwards as we go on through Monday.

Still a fair of amount of dry weather down to the southeast

and temperatures 16-20 degrees.

So let's catch up on the progress of our area of high pressure

as we move out of Monday into Tuesday.

Still sitting down here to the southwest. This area of

high pressure is essentially contained in

a ridge in the jet stream.

The jet stream is what drives the

weather systems around the world

and the jet stream bending way up

to the north as our area of

high pressure sits in place.

The weather systems will be

deflected away to the north

and as this bend in the jet stream

builds its way in from the middle

part of next week, it is likely

that more of us will see the

influence of this area

of high pressure. The big question

is how far north that high will

take control, and it still looks

like northern parts of the country

could be affected by areas of

low pressure. So it's likely to be

dry with some sunshine in the south,

some rain at times in northern parts

of the country, a little warmer

but no heat wave. But in southern

areas at least, something a little

more settled on the way.