08/01/2018 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello there. It was a sparkling Sunday for many of us -

a hard frost, yes, but some beautiful blue sky

and sunshine, for most, anyway.

Temperatures in the sheltered glens of Scotland

got down to lows of -10 degrees.

We saw some beautiful Weather Watchers' photographs sent in,

like this, showing the frosty scenes with the lovely blue sky

throughout the day.

However, there are signs that the cold air is going to slowly

be squeezed out by something a little less cold

moving in from the Atlantic over the next couple of days.

Monday will give a North-South divide for many, though,

in terms of sparkling sunshine through Scotland,

northern England and Northern Ireland.

An easterly flow will drag in more cloud across England and Wales,

producing a little bit of nuisance drizzle as well,

making it feel cold and drab for much of the afternoon.

Top temperatures on Monday 2 to 6 degrees,

down on where we should be, really, for this time of year.

Now as we move out of Monday, the winds will start to fall light,

the drizzle ease away,

but there could be a problem with some fog forming,

some of it dense in places, and if that happens

it could be pretty slow to clear away first thing

on Tuesday morning. Not quite as cold a start on Tuesday

but I'm sure with the fog around it's not going to feel

particularly great out there first thing in the morning.

Hopefully the fog will slowly lift away

and Tuesday is the sign of this slight change developing.

A weather front pushing in from the Atlantic.

Ahead of it, we see the wind swing round to a southerly direction,

so that's going to introduce something a little less cold,

which means that this will be rain rather than snow.

But at the same time, we've still got the south-easterly flow

dragging in more cloud along those east coasts of Scotland

and eastern England. 3 to 5 degrees at the very best.

Milder a little bit south and west,

but indications of that wetter weather set to push through.

Now, that will arrive overnight Tuesday

and move into Wednesday, and for a time, some of it,

along the west-facing coast, will be quite heavy as well.

This weather front is going to make what we call erratic progress

as it pushes further east. It's going to be a real messy picture

as we go through the day,

the rain lingering on Wednesday

across much of the eastern half of the UK.

Behind it, slowly we'll see an improving picture.

Brighter skies, sunshine into Northern Ireland and western fringes

by the end of the afternoon, and here, double digits quite likely.

But as we move out of Wednesday into Thursday,

we see this little brief ridge of high pressure developing,

the isobars opening up and the winds falling light yet again.

At this time of year, again,

that could produce some problems with some fog,

particularly with the moisture still lying around

as that frontal system clears away. So, a foggy start to Thursday.

There could be some rain lingering in he north-east.

The fog will lift. Hopefully we'll see some sunny spells coming through

with highs of around 5 to 7 degrees.

Now, as we move out of Thursday into Friday,

we can see another weather front

starting to push in from the Atlantic

and this could potentially herald a change

to the longer-term picture.

Because we started off pretty cold but quite settled,

but as we look further ahead, it looks as though the jet stream

is likely to intensify and sit across the UK,

and that's going to drive these areas of low pressure

in from the Atlantic. So all that basically means is,

things could turn a little more unsettled

as we move towards the end of the week and into next week.

So generally quite unsettled, with rain at times.

There will be some drier interludes.

With the rain, we could see gales as well.

Temperatures improving a little, but don't expect too much.

Average for this time of year.

More details coming up throughout the week.