Wednesday afternoon forecast 18/05/22

18 May - National weather forecast presented by Aidan McGivern.

Transcript

00:00Hello again. Some intense thunderstorms are likely across southeastern parts of the UK

00:05later, but before they arrive, a fine day for most. Plenty of warm sunshine up and down

00:10the country, just a few showers for the far north and north-west of Scotland as well as

00:15Northern Ireland, the winds picking up here, and the cloud arriving there ahead of the

00:20storms towards the south and south-west. So some haziness to the sky, but otherwise a

00:26fair amount of bright, warm and sunny weather. Temperatures reaching 24 Celsius in the south-east,

00:33not quite the dizzy heights of Tuesday, but warm enough and high teens, low twenties elsewhere.

00:39But by this stage in the afternoon, you can see rain arriving into the far west and showers

00:44making an appearance towards the south-west. Two things going on as we go into the evening.

00:49A weather front is approaching from the west. That's a cold front, but ahead of the cold

00:54front, a plume of very warm air across much of the continent just heads towards the south

00:59and south-east of the UK and associated with that plume, some very lively thunderstorms.

01:05So the weather turning wet and windy as the cold front pushes into Northern Ireland and

01:09western Scotland later, but it's really across the south and south-east where the most impactful

01:15weather is likely as the showers turn to thunderstorms and especially for Dorset, Hampshire, Isle

01:21of Wight, West Sussex, those are the sorts of areas where we're likely to see some torrential

01:26rainfall, hail, frequent lightning, gusty winds as thunderstorms spread up from the

01:31channel and they're likely to spread into parts of East Anglia and the south-east of

01:35course. Thunderstorms are often a hit and miss, so not everyone will see one, but where

01:40they do occur could be very lively indeed. Now, they move through quite quickly, clear

01:46spells following once the rain is out of the way across Scotland and Northern England

01:51and then clear spells to end the night, temperatures holding up in the double figures in many spots.

01:57But a bright start to Thursday and it's going to be a fresher day because that warm plume

02:03is out of the way, we're into more of a west-south-westerly airflow, but high pressure sufficiently close

02:10to allow for a fine day for the vast majority. So after that early sunshine, legacy of the

02:15thunderstorms there, a few spots of rain in East Anglia, but even that clears away

02:20and then sunny spells for the vast majority through Thursday. But again, across Western

02:24Scotland and Northern Ireland, we're into a breezy day here with showers as well and

02:31a thicker cloud cover. But for much of England, Wales, southern and eastern Scotland, temperatures

02:36up to 19 to 23 Celsius with those warm sunny spells. Now, the showery weather out towards

02:42the north-west on Thursday becomes more widespread as we go into Friday. And again, there's the

02:49threat of thunderstorms on Friday close to the south-east. I'll keep you updated on all

02:55of that over the next few days. But for now, that's all for me. Bye.