16/12/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Welcome to Weather for the Week Ahead where we look further

afield and I can give you an early insight into what may well

happen towards Christmas.

Before that we closed out our wintry week on a cold

note but with some sunshine.

Most of the showers were across the far north-east

and that made it feel bitter if you were caught in the showers.

Here's a beautiful picture, pretty dramatic

but I'm sure it didn't feel very pleasant if you were out and about.

The cold air stays with us

for one more day before we start to see a change.

A milder south-westerly flow driving in across the country.

That is going to bring milder weather but unfortunately it

will bring wetter weather for the second half of the weekend.

Before that it's a cold and frosty start for most of us on Saturday.

The exception Northern Ireland north-west England, Wales

and eventually into the south-west.

A rah of showers making it feel a little disappointing here.

Despite that frost temperatures will struggle with some decent

spells of sunshine.

Two or three degrees across central and eastern areas,

with the cloud and the showers, six to eight.

The change arrives through Saturday night into Sunday morning.

This front will push in from the west.

The wind direction changes, a west or a south-westerly.

A milder and wetter source. It's bringing in some rain,

some of it heavy for a time through Northern Ireland, Scotland,

north-west England and Wales and gradually that will move to

all parts through parts of Sunday but milder with it.

7-11.

That marks the change as we go into the early half of next week.

It will be predominantly dry, mild for most of us

but there's going to be a lot of cloud around.

Don't expect too much in the way of sunshine.

On Monday perhaps the best of the sunshine will be across central

and eastern areas and with clearer skies through the night

it will be a chillier day. Six degrees here.

We'll see more cloud out to the west.

The winds increasing, a bit more breeze through the north-west

and the arrival of another weather front trying to

push in from the north-west all the time.

That will introduce a few scattered showers across Scotland

and Northern Ireland.

Elsewhere it's a cloudy but dry story,

9-12 the high on Tuesday afternoon.

Into Wednesday our weather front, a very weak affair,

slicing its way down through the country.

Behind it bright and breezy, 10-11.

Down to the south, cloudy with highs of 12.

To the early half of this week this is the weather story.

We have this area of high pressure to the south.

The jet stream at the moment really to the north of the UK.

That's allowing this mild south-westerly flow to develop.

Deflecting the lows into the north-west, the extreme north-west

so quite a quiet story but a cloudy story with this moist cloudy flow.

As we go into the end of the week one computer model

suggests that the jet stream dips down to the south again

and when we're to the north of the jet stream that allows

the north-westerly flow which means as we head to the Christmas

period it could turn pretty cold.

However that is only one model.

The favoured suggestion is for this north south divide to stay

with us with high pressure down towards the south

and the jet stream deflecting these lows across to the north.

Still a lot to play for. Still a lot of uncertainty.

At the moment it does look as though we start the week ahead mainly mild.

There will possibly be a brief cold spell

and then likely to revert back to a north south split.

We'll firm up on that over the weekend.