31/12/2017 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello there. I'm going to end this forecast

by talking about cold weather returning.

But I'll start by talking about the fourth named storm

of the season that's going to arrive

on the final day of this year.

Coming from this area of cloud,

it's a deepening area of low pressure.

You can see the cloud head there.

The centre of the storm, Storm Dylan,

named by the Irish Met Service,

will get very close to Northern Ireland

and then run across Scotland.

So the Met Office have issued an amber wind warning.

We're looking at some very strong winds across the southern half

of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the far north of England,

but the strongest winds, by the early morning,

across the north of Northern Ireland

and the southwest of Scotland -

gusts of 70mph,

plus there'll be some wet weather

in Scotland in the morning.

In the afternoon, though,

the winds will have calmed down everywhere.

There'll be some sunshine around.

There'll be these bands of showers that come in.

Those could be potentially heavy.

A range of temperatures again - north, south.

Another cold day across Scotland. Much milder across southern England.

If you're celebrating new year,

expect some showers around.

By this stage, though,

the winds very much lighter across Scotland.

It will be turning a bit colder as well.

As we head into the first day of the new year,

we could see a spell of rain coming

across the southern parts of England,

South Wales, for a while.

Really strong winds through the Channel.

Then some sunshine following on behind,

quite a few showers packing into Scotland,

Northern Ireland and the northwest of England.

It gets a little bit colder.

Nothing too cold just yet.

A little bump of high pressure will tend to fizzle away

most of those showers,

but only because we've got a big low pressure

coming across the Atlantic and these weather systems too.

This low is a fairly deep one,

but the centre of it is much further north.

And we get these bands of rain coming across the UK,

together with some stronger winds.

That rain could be quite heavy.

It takes a while to clear away from eastern areas.

Sunshine and showers follow into Wales and the southwest,

where it's going to be mild.

But, again, further north,

the chance in the colder air in Scotland

of seeing some snow over the higher ground.

That area of lower pressure gets elongated

and stays to the northwest.

Coming around the base of it,

we get another area of low pressure that's going to deepen.

Looks like the strongest of the winds

will be more towards the south of the UK,

coming in to continental Europe,

but it could be very windy for a while,

some strong winds, some rain too,

before things then turn quieter

by the end of the day

and we get some sunshine and showers.

Those two areas of low pressure

then sort of wander their way into Europe.

Another area of low pressure

coming in off the Atlantic for Thursday.

So a very unsettled theme

for the first few days of the new year.

Probably in between weather systems

for most of Thursday, so for most of the day,

it should be fine and dry with some sunshine.

But we take that unsettled weather into the weekend.

We have to look at what's happening across the other side

of the Atlantic with the jet stream diving further

south across the eastern side of North America.

We're going to get more amplification of the jet stream.

That will propagate across the Atlantic.

It looks like the jet stream is going to be to the

south of the UK, or at least heading that way, next weekend,

then we're going to get into some colder air.

Then the question is how long will that colder air stay?

It means there'll be some longer drier spells,

still the threat of some rain and some snow for a while,

but the main thing is it's going to be turning colder,

and some models suggest

perhaps an easterly wind for a time.

That's it. See you later.