Holiday Weatherview Weatherview

Welcome to our regular weekly look at international holiday weather.

Whilst here we are bracing ourselves for storm Abigail

and later in the weekend some very wet weather,

indeed over the weekend, some potentially exceptional wet weather,

we do have some warmth still with us further south through

the Mediterranean islands and into southern Europe.

The oranges indicate temperatures just into the low 20s.

21 in Athens, plenty of sunshine here after what has been quite

a stormy autumn. You won't be without a few showers

but, generally through the Mediterranean islands,

across the Balearics and into Iberia, through Portugal, lots of fine

and dry weather, down towards the Canaries and Madeira as well.

So a settled weekend for many here

and indeed across southern parts of France.

You can see Thessalonika

seeing temperatures into the high teens here.

And Faro up to 20 degrees. A bit more cloud come Sunday.

Further north, we do pick up more cloud,

a weak weather front around across northern parts of France.

But it is that weather front which will sit across parts of the central

areas of the UK, north Wales, northern England

and southern Scotland which could bring some exceptional

amounts of rainfall and clearly a concern for flooding.

It will affect parts of the Low Countries as well.

London stays wet,

potentially some rain around early on Sunday as well.

To the south of that in Paris, some drier but still cloudy weather.

Let's head over to the States now

because across eastern parts of the US and indeed eastern Canada -

some snow to come here over the next few days - it is quite chilly air

so only eight the high in New York.

A few showers further south across southern states,

southern parts of Florida.

Actually, for the weekend looking pretty unsettled

across the Pacific Northwest as well.

You saw that rain there in Seattle.

It warms up a little bit with some sunshine come Sunday as high pressure

starts to build northwards both for New York and

for Washington, whilst further west those weather fronts still coming in.

So for Seattle, for example, some rain around and some showers

developing as well in LA and potentially Dallas too.

As we head to Australia, some stormy weather has been affecting parts of

New South Wales, parts of Queensland and up into Northern Territories.

That continues into the weekend.

You'd expect that at this time of year.

Starting to develop those showers across Northern Territories

but for Queensland and New South Wales, big storms, some severe

storms, you can see, by the brighter colours here on the rainfall chart.

So some significant thunderstorms around.

In comparison, on Saturday, in New Zealand it looks fine and dry.

Temperatures still getting there. You can see the low teens.

However, come Sunday, we have got some rain marching into New Zealand.

Still those showers in the south and east of Australia

but warming up in Perth. 37 the high here.

Back home, I have talked about Abigail.

It has been packing a punch through Thursday evening.

Gusts of 60-70mph but potentially more in the north and west through

the night and this little area of rain

will be accompanied by squally winds rushing across

the southern half of the UK first thing Friday as well.

So, yes, we could easily see 70, 80, 90mph gusts of wind

in northern and western areas

where we have got that amber warning from the Met Office.

It gets much colder behind so we will see our first

snow of the season across the Scottish mountains.

As I say, top gusts 80mph, potentially more.

The impacts of course are flooding, power outages and travel disruption.

Coastal flooding, that is.

We start Friday with some nasty weather across many parts

but gusty winds of 60-70mph

potentially in western parts of England and Wales

and even 60 further east as that rain clears away.

Then snow could penetrate those showers across Cumbria,

into the Pennines as well.

It may well say 7-12 on the thermometer.

That is lower than it has been for some time

but it will feel much colder.

Now, back to Saturday and what I talked about earlier was

the potential for an awful lot of rain.

This tropical air in amongst this next area of low pressure

through Saturday and Sunday, meandering across central areas.

Southern Scotland, north-west England, north Wales, we think,

could see as much as 100-150 millimetres of rain in places.

That will cause significant impact and potentially flooding.

Clearly, that is an exceptional amount of rain

so please do stay tuned to the forecasts.