03/12/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. The first chapter of our weather story this week is not

a particularly thrilling one, just a continuation of the quiet

and relatively mild weather that we've seen during Sunday.

That's how it looked for one of our Weather Watchers in Cardiff

on Sunday - large areas of cloud, some spells of sunshine -

and that's what we take with us into the start of the new week.

But after that quiet start to the story,

things get a bit more exciting - wet

and windy weather for the middle of the week, and then it will

turn much colder and, yes, some of us will see some snow.

But Monday is essentially plain sailing.

Could be some fog patches in East Anglia

and the south-east through the morning.

Then there'll be large areas of cloud

which could produce the odd spot of rain,

but on balance it's a mostly dry day with some spells of sunshine,

temperatures not bad at all for the time of year, seven degrees

in Newcastle, eleven for Plymouth and for the Channel Islands.

Now, the quiet start to the week comes courtesy of this, an area

of high pressure drifting slowly eastwards.

But these frontal systems start to squash in from the west during

Tuesday, and as those fronts squash in, it'll start to strengthen up the

winds in northern and western areas. Some rain into the north-west, too.

Dry down towards the south-east, and after any early fog has cleared,

then we will see some spells of sunshine.

But the main player in our weather story for the middle

of the week is this, a deep Atlantic low-pressure system.

The first effect will be to bring strong winds in western areas,

increasingly strong through Wednesday.

There'll be gales in places, heavy rain,

too, into Northern Ireland, Western Scotland.

Largely dry to the south-east, and with this south-westerly wind,

very, very mild indeed, ten, eleven, twelve degrees,

that mild air being drawn up ahead of our low-pressure system.

Now, as the low moves through on Wednesday night,

it's going to bring some very heavy rain, some very strong winds.

That could cause some disruption, so stay tuned to the forecast.

And then, as the low drifts away,

we get plunged back into the deep freeze,

these northerly winds coming all the way from the Arctic

down across the British Isles.

So on Thursday we have the rain to get rid of.

In fact, it'll hang around for a good

part of the day in the south-east.

Then it's a windy day, quite a bright day, with sunshine,

but showers, too.

Initially over hills in the north we'll see some snow, but that snow

is likely to develop to lower levels as we head through Thursday night.

Now, this is a really wintry-looking weather chart, I have to say -

low pressure to the east, high pressure to the west,

these very strong northerly winds.

In fact, we'll see gales across exposed spots in Scotland.

And where those strong winds coincide with snow showers,

it could be blizzard conditions.

Snow showers possible for the west coast and the east coast, many areas

seeing sunshine, but a cold feel,

which we take with us into the start of next weekend.

These northerly winds still blowing down across the country.

However, a subtle change looks likely to take

place during the weekend.

This area of high pressure looks like it's going to try

and topple in from the west. It'll do a few things.

It'll cut off that northerly wind,

so it will be slightly - SLIGHTLY - less cold, we suspect,

with fewer showers but more issues with frost and fog.

There is, though, the continued risk of rain and snow,

as through the latter part of the weekend

and into the following week we could well see frontal systems or

areas of low pressure diving in from the north-west, allowing us

to tap into some milder air, yet with cold air not far away

there is the continued chance of some snow.

So a quiet start to the week, but then the story gets more exciting.