Week Ahead – Winter bites back? 28/03/22
Having become used to widespread warm spring sunshine, winter returns this week with widespread frost, much lower temperatures and (for some) snow. Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern has the Week Ahead forecast.
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00:00Hello, and welcome to the Met Office forecast for the week ahead. Now that we've all gotten
00:05used to some warm spring sunshine, this week winter bites back. You can see it there at
00:11the time of recording, waiting to the north of the UK, air coming down straight from the
00:17Arctic behind this cold front and watch as the cold front pushes south across Scotland
00:22during Tuesday into Wednesday and then Wednesday into Thursday it sweeps across England, Wales,
00:26Northern Ireland and then by the end of the week we're all in the colder air as high pressure
00:32starts to move back in again from the west. With that colder air a return to overnight
00:37frosts widely by the end of the week and in some places sleet and snow even in the south.
00:46Some uncertainty there and more on that in a moment but on Tuesday morning it's largely
00:51frost free start because we've got a lot of cloud cover, low cloud, mist and fog in places
00:56central and eastern England particularly gloomy. It will slowly lift but I think we
00:59keep a lot more cloud than we've been used to over the last week or so. Some showery
01:03rain affecting the English Channel coast first thing, one or two showers breaking out as
01:08temperatures rise through the day elsewhere and here's the cold front, it's pushing into
01:13northern Scotland at this stage, it's bringing an area of rain, nothing particularly heavy,
01:17could see some sleet over the hills as that comes south but the real cold air there coming
01:23into the northern isles and feeling much colder with temperatures of 5-7 degrees even lower
01:29when you factor in the strength of the wind and the fact that we'll see sleet, snow, hail
01:35showers by this stage for Shetland and Orkney. Elsewhere temperatures still above average
01:40but not as high as they have been, 11-14 Celsius and certainly a lot more cloud than we've
01:45seen during the last week or so. Fast forward to Wednesday and the cold front by this stage
01:50is across Northern Ireland into Northern England, North Wales, bringing some spells
01:53of rain and hill snow but it's not a very active feature at this stage, it's slow moving
02:00the rain on and off. Showers breaking out across Wales and the south west ahead of it,
02:04still above average here, 11-12 Celsius but you can see the marked temperature change
02:08further north, 5-7 degrees and many places 10 degrees lower than we've seen over the
02:14last week or so. But some brightness for the central belt for example and some sunshine
02:19away from the sleet, hail and snow showers that will affect northern parts of Scotland.
02:25Now this front as I mentioned is quite weak at this stage but it could still bring some
02:28sleet and snow over the hills of Wales, central England but during Wednesday night into the
02:34start of Thursday it starts to develop a little circulation and there's some uncertainty about
02:40how much the feature will develop and as a result the extent, the timing and the intensity
02:45of any precipitation but it could bring in places sleet and snow if it's intense enough
02:53and that means that by the time we start Thursday, well a cold start certainly widely frost for
03:00Wales, Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland temperatures in some places lower
03:03than minus 5 Celsius and a very strong wind for northern and eastern coast bringing wintry
03:08flurries as well as a marked wind chill. But it's towards the south east where things could
03:13be particularly interesting. As I mentioned a lot of uncertainty but there's the potential
03:18here for rain, sleet and snow, a mixture perhaps and the snow mostly over higher ground so
03:24Chilterns, the Cotswolds for example but perhaps not exclusively. So don't be surprised if
03:29you wake up to some early morning snowfall in the south east on Thursday, through the
03:34day it loses its intensity, it slips southwards, any snow accumulating on roads, on grassy
03:41surfaces and stuff, it won't last long, the temperatures will rise, the ground is quite
03:46warm after the weather we've had recently so perhaps just a feature to look out for
03:50first thing before it disappears into the afternoon. But the temperatures widely, single
03:56figures now, feeling really quite cold in that wind particularly in the north and east
04:00where there will be some wintry showers, sleet, hail and snow around coasts making their way
04:05inland at times as well. Into Friday then, high pressure is building back in from the
04:11west but we've still got this very cold northerly or northeasterly airflow and so I think that
04:16there will be some brightness around, a frosty start widely but there will be sunny spells
04:21for many especially towards the west and the south for the first day of April. But further
04:26showers of rain, sleet, snow and hail affecting parts of the north and the east particularly
04:31around coasts and temperatures around 8 to 10 degrees. They are slowly recovering by
04:38this stage, I think the nadir of the cold spell will be on Thursday before those temperatures
04:43will gradually climb back towards average during the weekend. High pressure is moving
04:49in and we'll start to see less cold air move in from the northwest but perhaps bringing
04:54some rain or showers with it as well. So for the weekend it looks like there will be some
04:58showers, temperatures will slowly recover but still feeling quite cold in places and
05:04particularly we'll see those overnight frosts continuing. Much more on social media, bye-bye.