Monday afternoon forecast 20/12/21

20 December - National weather forecast presented by Aidan McGivern.

Transcript

00:00Hi there and welcome to the latest update from the Met Office. A quiet start to the

00:04new week but I don't think it will end quietly as far as the weather is concerned. Same again

00:09for most of us, cloudy skies covering much of the country, something a little brighter

00:13coming along in the east later and fairly breezy in the south west around the periphery

00:19of the area of high pressure which is generally keeping things dry and settled for the vast

00:23majority but once again a lot of cloud covering the country. Some cloud breaks here and there,

00:30mostly western Scotland I think, parts of west Wales as well but in many spots the cloud

00:36covering the hills is a dreary afternoon, some patchy drizzle where that cloud lowers

00:41enough. However, brighter skies in the east as a weak cold front introduces slightly higher

00:46cloud bases through the afternoon, 6 or 7 in the east, 8 or 9 further west. And then

00:52that higher cloud base works its way westwards through the evening and overnight and that

00:58allows some cloud breaks to come and go through the night, again fairly tenuous so I think

01:04for many it's going to be a cloudy night. But where we do see some cloud breaks coming

01:07through, 0 to minus 2 Celsius, a frost first thing Tuesday, otherwise 1 to 4 Celsius as

01:15we begin things and a lot of cloud again on Tuesday morning but a better chance I think

01:21on Tuesday of seeing those cloud breaks emerging, seeing some sunny spells at last across some

01:26parts of central, western England, Wales, western Scotland for example. Once more they'll

01:32be fairly tenuous, they'll come and go and for many it will be another cloudy day but

01:37the cloud base is a little higher compared to Monday so brighter skies on the whole I

01:42think for many and still quite breezy in the southwest but with those higher cloud bases

01:47it's colder air, 4 to 6 Celsius, feeling a little chillier compared to Monday. And with

01:52that chillier air in place, the higher cloud bases and some broken breaks in those clouds

01:58so we're going to see a more widespread frost forming I think on Tuesday evening and overnight

02:03particularly for central, western, northern parts of the country. And that sets the scene

02:07as we see a change in the weather start to emerge from the Atlantic. This area of rain

02:13wants to move in but a battleground begins to set up which makes things interesting for

02:20the rest of the week and heading into the Christmas weekend because we've got all this

02:23cold air to the north and the east of the UK but the Atlantic, mild wet weather pushing

02:29in from the southwest. And these colours are indicative of the temperature at about 5,000

02:35feet and you can see quite quickly mild air spreading in across the country along with

02:40bands of rain. But if I switch to the temperature at much lower levels at the surface you'll

02:45see that cold air is still in place and that leads to the risk of some freezing rain over

02:51the higher ground of northern England and Scotland and then later on Wednesday the risk

02:57of snow primarily across the Scottish mountains. And as we end the week we've got mild unsettled

03:03weather in charge across many parts of the country but with that bumping into cold air

03:07to the north there's a chance of some significant snow especially across parts of Scotland over

03:13the higher ground. And of course we'll keep you updated on all of that on our social media channels.

03:18Bye bye.