Week Ahead – April showers finally turn up 26/04/21
Much needed rain arrives this week but mostly in the form of showers. It will also stay cool with further overnight frosts in places. 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.
00:03Considering it's April, well this month has been notably lacking in showers or any kind
00:08of rain really.
00:09But this week, better news for gardeners and growers, some much-needed rainfall, mostly
00:15in the form of showers, so fairly hit and miss still, sunny spells in between.
00:20However, bad news for gardeners and growers, it will stay cool with the increased chance
00:25once again later this week of overnight frosts in places.
00:29Touch of frost possible as we start off Tuesday in the far south where we've got clear skies
00:34to begin, but elsewhere a lot of cloud cover and showers really for many places, but more
00:39persistent rainfall continues into the north-east of Scotland, 24 hours of rainfall here amounting
00:45to 20-30mm, that's much-needed rain of course.
00:49Elsewhere, showers breaking out more widely as daytime temperatures rise, for most it's
00:54a showery day.
00:55But in the far south and south-east, largely avoiding the showers during much of the afternoon
00:59and with light winds, 15 or 16 Celsius in the sunshine, feeling pleasant enough, further
01:04north and east, not so pleasant, 8 to 9 Celsius with a brisk wind from the North Sea and some
01:10more persistent rain in places.
01:14Later Tuesday, this wet weather continues in the north-east, the showers elsewhere continue
01:18for a time, but for many, well it's a case of clear spells and showers easing, particularly
01:25towards the north-west and in the south and south-east, not a great deal of rainfall just
01:29yet.
01:30Where we do get clear skies in places on Tuesday night, touch of frost is possible, especially
01:34for central Scotland, we're in this cool air mass at the moment, low pressure though, drifting
01:40southwards into the continent and so really we're into this fairly static airflow for
01:47the rest of the week, this north-easterly cool airflow with a mixture of sunny spells
01:52and showers by day.
01:53Low pressure still close by though on Wednesday, which means that the greatest chance of showers
01:58or longer spells of rain will be across southern parts of the UK and in some places, corridors
02:03of more persistent rainfall will start to become established and so in some places,
02:08some significant rain, 20 to 30 mils, but highly variable elsewhere with scattered showers
02:14more likely.
02:15The odd rumble of thunder in some of these heavy downpours in the south, further north
02:19it's less showery on Wednesday but still a few around and it's cold enough for some
02:24of the showers over the Grampians to be falling as snow, about 500 or 600 metres for example.
02:29Feeling cool in the north-east and a cooler day to come in the south as well.
02:34We've still got the blues across the UK with this north-easterly breeze bringing cooler
02:39conditions to all parts later this week and with low pressure nearby, it will continue
02:45to be fairly unsettled.
02:46So a touch of frost in places on Thursday morning, temperatures getting close to freezing
02:50where we get clear skies through the night, showers confined to coasts overnight but by
02:55day as the sun heats the ground with the cool air above, well ideal conditions for those
03:02April showers and there will be plenty of them during Thursday, popping up just about
03:06anywhere but the most frequent ones towards the north and the east and it will continue
03:12to feel cool, pleasant enough in the sunshine given the light winds but there will be quite
03:17a few showers around so 10 to 12 Celsius will feel cool where we get a shower or two.
03:24And really little change during Friday and much of the weekend, we continue to see a
03:29cool north-east of the airflow, even slacker isobars so light winds, that means a touch
03:35of frost overnight in places where we get clear spells and it means slow moving downpours
03:40by day with nothing much to shift those showers along but in between the showers, sunny spells
03:46and where we get some sunshine and light winds, of course the sun is strong, watch out for
03:51the UV but it will feel quite pleasant where that happens.
03:55Really through the weekend little change, sunny spells and showers effectively, we're
03:59on the northern side of the jet stream at the moment but the jet stream fairly slow
04:05moving so it's not developing anything particularly through the weekend but sneaking a peek towards
04:12the west for the start of next week, a more active branch of the jet stream is looking
04:17to develop this area of low pressure and some uncertainty about this but it looks likely
04:22that it will arrive towards the UK sometime around bank holiday Monday and it's more likely
04:28to affect England and Wales than Scotland and Northern Ireland.
04:32So to summarise, this weekend a mixture of sunny spells and showers, a touch of frost
04:38overnight as well, slow moving downpours by day and then on Monday, bank holiday Monday,
04:44the risk of more prolonged rain and stronger winds for some.
04:49That's all for now but of course you can stay up to date by following the Met Office on
04:53social media.
04:54Bye bye.