04/08/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Low pressure is in control at the moment

and while that remains the case,

we are going to struggle to see much

in the way of settled summer weather.

It was certainly quite unsettled on Thursday.

Southern areas were very windy,

but at least that meant the showers

blew through quite quickly.

Further north, yes, the winds were lighter,

but there were lots of showers,

some of them heavy and thundery,

particularly across northern

and eastern Scotland.

Yes, that delivered

some impressive cloudscapes

for our Weather Watchers here,

but if you're on your summer holidays,

you might well be hoping

for a bit more blue sky than that.

So, what about the prospects for the next few days?

Low pressure still firmly on the scene on Friday,

sitting up to the north-east at this stage

so it's closest to the centre of the low

where we'll see most of the showers,

particularly across Scotland.

A windier day across Scotland.

The further south you look,

you can see fewer showers,

more in the way of dry weather,

some spells of sunshine.

The winds will be lighter

than they were during Thursday

and some warmth to be had,

particularly across the south-east,

22-23 degrees,

cooler and fresher further north and west.

Now, as we go into the start of the weekend,

we are essentially stranded between high pressure,

which is trying to muscle in from the south-west,

and low pressure,

which is still hanging around up to the north-east.

That'll bring us a north-westerly wind,

never a particularly warm wind direction.

Quite a few showers, particularly across central areas,

we suspect, and temperatures just 16-20 degrees.

High pressure manages to bulge its way in

as we go on into Sunday.

Looks like it's trying to take control.

It'll certainly give us a fine start to Sunday.

Quite a cool start as well,

but the high does not manage to hold on.

An area of low pressure begins to journey in from the west

so that'll increase the cloud

and bring rain for Northern Ireland and Western Scotland

later in the day and it is low pressure

that is with us again

into the start of next week.

Frontal systems pushing across the country -

actually, this cold front here

could be really quite active,

could bring a band of really heavy rain southwards

and eastwards with the odd rumble of thunder

and those temperatures still a little disappointing

at 16-20 degrees.

Now, that rain band should clear away on Tuesday.

What does it leave behind?

Well, you guessed it,

a mixture of sunshine and showers,

temperatures just 15-20 degrees.

So, what's going on?

If we look at the broader picture,

the jet stream, you can see

the way the jet dives southwards.

In this bend in the jet stream,

we will have an area of low pressure,

but look further west.

Notice the way the jet stream,

the winds blow upwards?

We have this ridge in the jet stream

and it's within this ridge that high pressure

will be sitting in place.

Now, through the middle part of the coming week,

it looks like this ridge of high pressure

will build its way northwards and eastwards,

cutting off these Atlantic weather systems,

stopping them from working across the country.

The big question is just how much influence

will this high pressure have?

There's a chance it might build northwards

across the whole country and if it that happens,

all of us will get into

more settled summer weather,

but there's also a chance

that the high will only make it in

across the southern half of the country,

allowing low pressure to continue

to affect northern areas at times,

which will, of course, bring more cloud

and some outbreaks of rain.

So, to summarise that,

for the latter part of next week,

it does look like southern areas

at least will turn drier,

but there is still the chance

of some rain in the north.

While temperatures may climb

a little for some,

there's no heat wave on the way.

That's all from me for now. Goodbye.