10/01/2018 Weather for the Week Ahead

Hello, there. Over the weekend, all of the weather excitement

was at the other side of the Atlantic in the US and Canada.

To start this week, though,

the interest has turned to our side of the Atlantic.

We saw snowfall in the Sahara,

about a metre and a half's worth

of snowfall

in the space of 24 hours

in alpine regions.

Extreme avalanche risk here,

as well, at the moment -

whereas, for us,

well, we had grey,

and lots of it, as well.

So, what has been happening?

Well, the cold weather

across the US and Canada

certainly fired up a very active jet stream

across the Atlantic -

but notice, as it gets towards us,

it's dived down towards the south,

taking that cold air

towards southern parts of Europe

and north Africa,

leaving us in a fairly slack airflow.

Not much in the way of wind,

not much changing day by day,

and not much to push this weather front

eastwards across the country this morning -

but that weather front,

as it arrives through the night

into the morning,

will introduce some brighter conditions into the west.

Gone is the grey -

but there will be some lingering fog

in Northern Ireland after an icy start,

the odd pocket of frost in other western areas,

but a dry and bright day ahead.

Still grey, though, with that weather front

slowly moving across

northern and eastern Scotland,

and, for some eastern coastal counties of England,

some patchy rain and drizzle.

For you, maybe another day of grey to come.

Temperatures, though, up on what we've seen

over the past couple of days,

and, given a bit more sunshine,

lighter winds, that will feel quite pleasant -

but then we have that problem.

Light winds, clear skies through the night,

sharp, plunging temperatures.

Still wet through the night into Thursday

across the far north-east of Scotland,

showers for a time across the south-west,

which will gradually fade

in between some dense patches of fog forming,

and just about anywhere could see some frost,

maybe some ice on the ground,

to start Thursday morning.

As we look at the chart for Thursday,

still not many isobars across the UK,

so, once you've got the fog,

not much wind to clear it.

A ridge of high pressure,

still a bit of rain

across the far north-east of Scotland,

particularly for Orkney and Shetland.

Shetland the only place

seeing any noticeable breeze -

but mist and fog could be a problem

through the Midlands towards East Anglia

and the south-east,

and where you've got it, you could linger all day.

Temperatures struggling, 2 or 3 degrees at best.

Elsewhere, temperatures down on Wednesday,

still a reasonable amount of sunshine

for the north and west of the UK.

Now, we do it all again

through Thursday night to Friday.

A ridge of high pressure still with us,

but signs of something changing into the west.

Breeze picking up on Friday across some western areas

clearing any morning mist and fog here,

breaking the cloud up, some sunny spells,

then rain into Ireland later on.

Much of Scotland, England and Wales stays dry.

A few in the east

will hold on to those fog patches.

By the time we hit the weekend,

we've got another weather front

trying to push its way eastwards.

There's not much in the way of breeze

on the back edge of this, again,

so, we start with the rain in the west.

Beware, though,

this could be a little bit further east,

could be a little bit further west, as well -

but where it does,

rain on and off all day long,

but it will tend to fizzle in situ, really,

with just winds blowing north to south,

rather than across it.

So, a damp day on Sunday, patchy rain and drizzle,

and then another weather front

is going to have another attempt

to bring changes our way -

and this time it could be a bit more successful,

with some heavy rain into the west

by the time we finish the weekend.

So, that takes us into early next week.

The jet stream wakens up a little bit

and starts to push towards us,

introducing a bit more mobility

to our weather conditions,

and taking this area of low pressure

from Iceland down towards us.

It's going to be a gradual process,

but it will bring a noticeable change

into next week,

after a spell of rain early on,

moving from west to east,

it's going to turn windier

across the country.

Those winds going into a north-westerly direction -

so, a chilly direction -

and, so, sunshine and showers

to take us through a good part of the week,

but, with temperatures dropping again,

those showers in the west could turn wintry.