26/12/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. Well, after a very mild Christmas,

things are set to turn a little bit colder from Boxing Day,

in fact, and there's also a chance of waking up to some snow

across the southern uplands of Scotland and the Highlands,

and I think for all of us, it is going to turn colder on Boxing Day.

Now, at the moment,

we still have south-westerly winds affecting southern parts of the UK,

a weather front approaching, bringing some rain,

in fact Boxing Day will be very rainy, very windy in the south.

But the colder air is starting to tuck back in again,

and the mild air that we've had during Christmas Day itself

is being pushed away towards the east,

so Boxing Day starts off cold, icy in places,

some wintry weather there across the Pennines, maybe.

The southern uplands of Scotland

possibly waking up to 2-5 centimetres of snow,

and some snow further north in the Highlands, as well.

But you can't miss this here out south-west.

This is a weather front which is also swinging in off the Atlantic.

A wet day for Plymouth, for Cardiff as well.

And I want to point out what happens with this weather front

as it slides across the UK

during the course of the evening of Boxing Day.

Look at that.

Some snow develops across the hills of Wales,

maybe the Peak District,

possibly the bottom end of the Pennines, as well.

I don't think there's going to be any snow in Birmingham necessarily,

but we are going to see at least some sleet in some towns and cities,

and most of the snow will be falling across the hills.

And then as we head into Wednesday, the mild air is pushed away,

and we are well and truly in that colder air mass

coming in from the north.

And when I say colder, it is colder compared to what we've had.

This is not necessarily desperately cold, arctic air.

So, first thing in the morning, a little bit of wintriness around,

maybe across parts of the east Midlands,

maybe even the south-east as well, but that low pressure,

and the weather front pulls away,

and overall, Wednesday is looking bright and cold

after a frosty start in many northern and western areas.

Then on Thursday, we are actually in between weather systems,

so the low pressure there pulls away out into Scandinavia.

Another one is knocking on our doorstep,

but we're in between the weather systems here,

in that colder air stream, so once again, on Thursday,

we're waking up to chilly weather, frosty start for some of us,

but there will be a lot of crisp sunshine around, as well.

And this is what it looks like.

Six degrees maybe in London, briefly touching six.

More like three degrees across many northern cities,

and maybe a little bit of rain later on in the day

into the tip of Cornwall there.

Beyond that, into Friday, as we approach the weekend,

a very different story.

Low pressure starts to line up out there in the Atlantic,

being pushed by an increasingly strong jet stream.

That means that the weather

is starting to turn more and more turbulent.

With that, milder air returns,

temperatures back into double figures with rain sweeping through.

Looks like Saturday,

there might be brief windows of brighter weather,

but look at those values, 13 degrees, strong winds as well,

very gusty around the Pennines, too, and then as we head into Sunday,

New Year's Eve, we're still in that mild Atlantic air,

but with that, a strong rush of wind, as well,

so a risk of gale force winds for some of us, as well.

And the schematic really depicts

what the start of 2018 is going to look like.

We'll see low pressure very close to the UK

with a powerful jet stream, and that can only mean one or two things.

It certainly means very unsettled weather, windy weather,

and at times, there will be spells of rain.

So, very mild at the moment, briefly colder Boxing Day,

and then towards 2018, milder again.