Week ahead – some wintry weather? 24/02/20
It’s the last week of the meteorological winter and – having seen very little wintry weather so far this season – it’s finally looking colder with some snow possible. Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern has the forecast.
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Met Office forecast for the week ahead. It's the last week of
00:04meteorological winter and finally some wintry meteorology to talk about. It's going to be
00:11cold during the next few days across much of the UK. There'll be hail, sleet, snow showers
00:16but virtually anywhere and it stays like that up to the weekend for northern England, Scotland
00:23and Northern Ireland but further south, very uncertain, end of the week and into the weekend
00:28because areas of rain will bump into the cold air and how they interact with it, well that
00:33leads to some doubt in the forecast. More uncertain than normal for a week ahead forecast
00:38for southern Britain. This is the low pressure that we've seen on Monday, brings snow to
00:42northern parts of the country, that moves out of the way and then cold air plunges south
00:46across all parts and Tuesday we start off with wintry showers in northern and western
00:51Britain, risk of icy patches for the northern half of the country, a frosty but bright start
00:56in many places and then we'll continue to see showers, especially for western Scotland,
01:00northern Ireland, northern England, Wales and the south-west. I suspect there'll mainly
01:05be rain and sleet at lower levels but hail and thunder possible almost anywhere and some
01:10snow building up over the hills. It will feel cold. These are the temperatures on the thermometer
01:16on Tuesday afternoon but when you add in that wind, well it'll feel more like zero in many
01:21places or just below. That chill continues into the start of Wednesday, again frosty
01:27and icy to begin the day in many places, further snow showers coming into western Scotland,
01:32northern Ireland and by this stage the air cold enough that we could even see some snow
01:35coming down to lower levels, even as far south as the south-west where perhaps in one or
01:40two spots there'll be patchy snow covering but the snow mainly building up over the hills,
01:45especially during the day and there'll be some sunshine in between the showers so it's
01:49not going to be raining or snowing everywhere. There's certainly the best chance of any sunshine
01:53central and eastern parts of the UK. It will continue to feel cold however, mid to high
01:59single figures and add on that wind chill, even colder. Out to the west, mild bump in
02:05the air there across the Atlantic will lead to the development of an area of low pressure
02:10and how this interacts with the jet stream come Thursday is currently very uncertain.
02:15Now the European computer model sends that low into France but the Met Office computer
02:21model and the American model have it further north and more developed across southern parts
02:25of the country. At the moment, well we think it's most likely to run across southern counties
02:31of the UK and bump into the cold air further north and that means that as we start off
02:37Thursday we think it's most likely that southern counties of England, south Wales will see
02:42a spell of rain but north of the M4, the possibility of some temporary snowfall. Not
02:49a great deal, doesn't at the moment look to be widespread significant disruption but yeah,
02:55possibility of some snow, north London for example. It does clear away after lunchtime
02:59and then brighter skies follow but further wintry showers will continue to see them across
03:04northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Further snowfall, especially over the hills.
03:09Again, feeling cold once all of this clears through but some sunshine there after the
03:13grey and damp start in the south. Another similar set up come Thursday night into Friday
03:19and the jet stream scoops up systems to the west of the UK, throws them towards us but
03:24some uncertainty in terms of their north and south distribution. It looks likely that we'll
03:29remain in the cold air across northern parts of the country but further south, cloud and
03:34rain push in across southern parts of England and Wales. Now the main cause for uncertainty
03:41on Friday is the exact position of this dividing line. Cloudy wet weather, mild air there likely
03:47in the south west but much colder, brighter skies further north, hail sleet and snow showers.
03:54And another cause for uncertainty is just how wet and windy it will be across parts
03:58of Wales and the south west. So certainly one to stay up to date with towards the end
04:04of this week and we'll have you updated here at the Met Office. Whatever happens with that,
04:08it does clear through for the start of the weekend. Cold air returns across all parts
04:12on Saturday and again further wintry showers northern and western Britain. But once more
04:19through the weekend we're keeping our eye on these little features that could well introduce
04:24some rain or even some other types of weather into southern parts of the country. So the
04:28weekend on the whole staying cold, wintry showers likely to continue across northern
04:32England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and perhaps further south at times. But always that question
04:37mark about whether we'll see some wind and rain in the south at times. And of course
04:41you can follow all the very latest updates. We'll keep you updated right here at the Met
04:45Office via our social media channels, website and app. Bye bye.