Week Ahead – Fine start then winter returns at the end of the week
High pressure brings most of the UK a fine start to the week but the end of the week looks far more lively with cold and gusty winds and sleet and snow showers too. Alex Deakin has the details.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome to your weather for the week ahead from the Met Office.
00:03Big changes taking place with our weather through the course of this week,
00:07depending on where you live will depend on the exact timing of that change.
00:12But by the end of the week, pretty much all parts of the UK will be noticeably wetter,
00:17windy and it's going to turn cold as well.
00:20A cold snap may not last all that long, but certainly a bit chilly
00:24come Friday and Saturday to say the least.
00:26Now, with things turning wetter and windier, as you'd expect,
00:29it's low pressure in charge.
00:31This is Friday's chart, a weather front swinging across the country
00:34and plenty of isobars as well.
00:36But let's rewind and come back to the start of the week
00:40where we've got a big area of high pressure still in control for the time being.
00:45So still bringing dry weather for most through Monday night.
00:48This weather front is getting a little closer
00:50and the isobars are squeezing closer together as well during Tuesday.
00:54So the wind's picking up in the far northwest.
00:57A bit of patchy rain here and there initially,
00:59but it will turn wetter in western Scotland and Northern Ireland by the end of Tuesday.
01:04For most of England, Wales, eastern Scotland, it's dry today,
01:07predominantly cloudy, but some breaks in the cloud,
01:10revealing a bit of sunshine over southeast England and northeast Scotland.
01:14And with a bit of sunshine, of course, this time of year,
01:17temperatures could easily climb up into the teens in places,
01:2010 or 11 generally elsewhere, 12, 13, 14, where we see a bit of sunshine.
01:26Now, that wet weather in the northwest is from this weather front.
01:28It's quite an active low pressure just moving to the far north.
01:31So very windy for a time across northern Scotland on Tuesday night.
01:35The isobars open up a little bit on Wednesday,
01:38which means this weather front becomes quite slow moving,
01:41sitting across parts of England and Wales,
01:43bringing some patchy rain on Wednesday and slowly creeping its way eastwards.
01:48As it clears, northern England, Wales brightening up quite nicely.
01:51Scotland, Northern Ireland having a mixture of sunshine and blustery showers.
01:56Ahead of that weather front, we could still creep up to the teens
01:59with a bit of brightness across the southeast, generally, again, 10 or 11 Celsius,
02:03but feeling quite pleasant in the sunshine over north Wales and northwest England.
02:07The outbreaks of rain fizzling out as they cross the southeast
02:11as this weather front finally shifts away as we head into Thursday.
02:15But then more weather fronts waiting towards the northwest.
02:18And again, those isobars just getting closer together.
02:21So a breezy day on Thursday, broadly speaking, sunshine and showers.
02:26The showers will tend to move through on a fairly brisk wind,
02:29but there will be quite a few of them,
02:32probably eastern parts of England staying driest for longest.
02:36Again, temperatures responding to a bit of sunshine,
02:38maybe getting into the teens, but generally 10 or 11 Celsius
02:41and feeling cooler when the showers come along.
02:44Speaking of cooler, though, well, we're in for a bit of a shock come the end of the week
02:49because by the time we get to Friday, that's when the really cold air moves in.
02:53Another cold front swinging across the country
02:56and the isobars pinching together once more.
02:59A very blustery day on Friday and also feeling an awful lot colder.
03:03If we track this weather front back and see where the air is coming from,
03:07then you can see really cold air coming down from between Greenland and Canada.
03:12And that will burrow its way right across the UK during Friday.
03:16Much colder air, strong wind, so a significant wind chill on Friday.
03:20And that air is cold enough so that when we see showers on Friday across the north,
03:24they are likely to have some snow mixed in,
03:27even down to relatively low levels across parts of western Scotland.
03:31Now, at this stage, not expected to cause too many problems,
03:34not expected to stick around too long, those showers.
03:37But we will see wintry showers across northern Britain, it looks like, on Friday
03:40and a significant wind chill as well.
03:42And everywhere it will feel colder in that wind.
03:45That cold theme will continue into the start of the weekend
03:48with further wintry showers initially on Saturday.
03:51But it doesn't look like that cold spell will last too long
03:54as things start to turn milder as we go through the weekend.
03:58Plenty to talk about then, especially towards the end of the week.
04:01So make sure you stay up to date with the latest from the Met Office.
04:04Best way to do that, follow us on social media.