09/01/2018 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello. Monday was the day of the great British weather divide.

Northern areas saw crisp, wintry sunshine after a frosty start.

Southern areas, it was grey and cold.

Shows up nicely on the satellite imagery here.

You can see the cloud expanding

northwards throughout the day. Clear skies remain,

Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

But at the same point one time during the afternoon,

Musselburgh and Bristol both showing two degrees

but as our weather watchers show you,

completely different views outdoors.

And with the sunshine, that two degrees felt a lot better

in Musselburgh than it did in Bristol.

As we go through into Tuesday,

the high pressure that was with us

on Monday continues to push further east.

At that allows the winds to go more southerly.

That has taken the cloud further north.

So a greyer day for northern England, Scotland,

Northern Ireland. Misty over the hills.

The odd spot of light train or drizzle.

But the clouds low based and low topped in that

when it hits the hills, say the Scottish mountains,

the Cumbrian fells and the Welsh mountains,

it will break up. So, Gwyneth, Anglesey, Cumbria

and the north and west Highlands of Scotland,

you'll probably see sunshine all day long again.

Could it 10 or 11 degrees. A cool day for many.

Turning milder in the south-west.

Devon and Cornwall, South Wales,

by the end of the afternoon

rain arrives, pushing through N Ireland in the evening.

Through Tuesday night, into Wednesday morning,

rain pushes northwards and eastwards

fairly erratically.

As skies clear to the south and west of the country,

into Wednesday morning,

we'll see fog patches form

and some icy conditions as well

following rain earlier in the night.

So for Wednesday,

that weather front brings rain

across eastern areas to start with.

As there's not many isobars on the back edge of it,

that indicates there's not much wind,

not enough to push that off.

So some eastern areas could stay

cloudy and damp all day long,

particularly through eastern England

and also in Shetland, quite a windy day.

But elsewhere, some fog will linger,

but many will have a much brighter day

on Wednesday compared with Tuesday.

After in places a frosty start,

actually quite pleasant when the sun is overhead,

although temperatures in some of the Scottish mountains

will stay close to freezing.

Wednesday night, an area of low pressure with showers

gets close to the south-west, also the Channel Islands.

Pushes into France, high-pressure with us,

not many isobars once again

and that lasts for the rest of the week.

Light winds, clear skies at times overnight,

frost and fog could be an issue by the morning.

On Thursday, mainly across central and western areas,

still could be a lot of cloud in the east.

Many will brighten up, sunny spells,

a bit cool though,

temperatures in single figures.

With few isobars into Friday,

it's that same repeated process.

Like Thursday, some will see

mist and fog to begin with.

Some of that fog may take a while to shift,

if it does at all. There will be sunny spells,

particularly in the west where the breeze picks up later.

Any fog here should clear

and that breeze picks up

ahead of this weather front.

This is the big question as we go into the weekend

and beyond - how quickly this one pushes its way in.

At the moment it looks like the south-west, Wales

and into western Scotland and Northern Ireland

are likely to see the rain on Saturday.

But that could all be further west

it could all be a bit further east,

and that's our big problem in the outlook

as we go through into next week.

This Scandinavian high pressure, how quickly that relinquishes its grip

and how quickly this area of low pressure pushes in.

Most computer models show this does happen, but it's

the rate at which this happens which is the big uncertainty.

So we know it looks like most places will see

a wet and windy spell before Atlantic winds return,

whether they're westerly on north-westerly,

pushing us back into sunshine and showers.

But how quickly that happens and how quickly things turn milder

is something we'll of course keep you updated on.