During the week, a low latitude jet stream has brought cloud, rain and low temperatures. During the upcoming weekend, the jet stream will move north again. But what will that mean for the UK’s weather?
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Metal Viz forecast for the weekend.
00:03All change on the weather front this weekend,
00:05by which I mean there will be fewer weather fronts.
00:08And by that, I mean there will be some showers on Saturday,
00:11but Saturday showers give way to Sunday's sunshine
00:15with high pressure building in, all
00:17courtesy of the jet stream.
00:18Now, that jet stream has been really influential
00:21in our weather this week.
00:22It's been moving across southern parts of the UK,
00:24bringing in areas of low pressure,
00:26bringing in weather fronts, and there are still
00:29some weather fronts and low pressure around
00:31as we end Friday.
00:32And that means that if you do have any evening plans
00:34on Friday, watch out for a few showers across much of the UK,
00:38but more prolonged wet weather moving
00:40along southern counties of England during the evening,
00:43mainly South Devon and South Cornwall.
00:46Now, any showers won't be as heavy as the severe storms
00:49that we've got across the states at the moment.
00:52Why are they important?
00:53Because they are nudging the jet stream
00:55across the states northwards.
00:58And what happens on the other side of the pond
01:00often influences our weather downstream,
01:03because that nudge of the jet stream
01:05then ripples downstream.
01:07It dives south over the mid-Atlantic,
01:09and then we start to see it move north
01:11to the west of the UK initially.
01:14And when the jet stream moves north of the UK,
01:17of course, we do see high pressure building in.
01:21So rather than a low-latitude jet stream,
01:23we've got a high-latitude jet stream
01:26and high-pressure building in for Sunday.
01:28But of course, this is Sunday.
01:30What about Saturday?
01:31Well, let's rewind the clock,
01:33and we see that the jet stream is still to the south of the UK
01:36for Saturday's weather.
01:38We're still on the cold side.
01:40And with cold air high up in the sky
01:42where that jet stream flies around the globe
01:44and with the strong sunshine heating the ground,
01:47well, that's a recipe for rising thermals
01:50and developing shower clouds
01:52and some heavy downpours possible
01:54across many parts of the UK,
01:55particularly central and eastern Scotland,
01:57central and eastern England, parts of Wales.
02:00It's western parts of Scotland, England, Wales,
02:02Northern Ireland, where we'll see most places staying dry,
02:06some sunny spells as well,
02:07feeling pleasant enough in the sunshine on Saturday,
02:1015, 16, 17 degrees, but no heat wave
02:13because, of course, we're still on that cold side
02:15of the jet stream.
02:17And being on that cold side of the jet stream
02:19means that many places will start off frosty on Sunday morning.
02:22These are towns and cities in the countryside,
02:25minus two to minus four degrees,
02:27quite a sharp frost for the middle of May.
02:31So the high pressure on top of us by Sunday,
02:33but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be hot
02:37because, like I say, it's going to be a chilly start,
02:39that high pressure building in
02:40on top of relatively cold air across the UK.
02:44But it's building in nevertheless,
02:45and that means light winds for many places
02:47at the start of Sunday.
02:49And after that frosty start, plenty of warm sunshine.
02:52So those temperatures very quickly rising
02:54through the morning and by the afternoon.
02:56Again, we keep sunny spells,
02:57some fair weather cloud building up,
02:59thicker cloud there for Northern Ireland,
03:01but otherwise it's a dry, it's a bright day
03:05and that sunshine will feel warm.
03:07Despite that chilly start,
03:08we're looking at 16 to 18 degrees
03:11where the sunshine is at its best.
03:14So warming up, drying up,
03:16settling down over the next few days,
03:18courtesy of that high pressure
03:20and that jet stream pushing northwards.
03:22More details on the weekend weather
03:24and into the start of next week
03:25can be found on the Met Office social media channels
03:28and via the Met Office app.
03:29Bye-bye.