Met Office Thursday Afternoon Forecast 21/03/2024
21 March - National weather forecast presented by Alex Deakin.
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00:00Thanks for joining me for your afternoon weather update from the Met Office.
00:04A bit of a north-south split with the weather today.
00:07The bigger picture shows quite a lot of cloud across the UK
00:11and a big circulation up across Iceland.
00:13That's an area of low pressure and its weather fronts are dangling south across the UK,
00:19providing thicker cloud and outbreaks of rain in places,
00:22but much of the south under the influence of high pressure,
00:25so staying generally dry and bright here.
00:27But those weather fronts are providing some rain,
00:29particularly for Northern Ireland, Central and Southern Scotland, dull and damp through much of the afternoon.
00:33Some patchy rain over Northern England, particularly for parts of Cumbria
00:36and a little bit of showery rain at times for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
00:39But most of England and Wales, certainly the southernmost parts dry
00:43and actually brightening up a little this afternoon.
00:45Could see some sunny spells developing and actually brightening up too over northwest Scotland.
00:50A few showers possible here and it is getting windier and windier here too.
00:55Really quite blustery, particularly through this evening and overnight.
00:57That wind will make it feel quite cool as well, temperatures 9 or 10 Celsius.
01:01But in the south, it is another pretty mild day, 16, maybe even 17 Celsius, where we see some sunshine.
01:08Now, the cloud and the rain will ebb away from Northern Ireland and Southern Scotland this evening,
01:12slowly trickling into northwest England and across Wales,
01:15so turning soggy here and that rain spreading into the Midlands and southwest England by dawn.
01:21To the north again, some clearer skies moving in, but there will be some showers.
01:24And as I said, it's going to get windy, very windy through the night across the far north of Scotland.
01:28That line of cloud and rain, that is a cold front.
01:31So it's introducing colder air to the north.
01:34The showers will come in and fall of snow over the tops of the mountains across Scotland.
01:39Enough of a wind to stop too much of a frost,
01:41but certainly not far from freezing across northern Scotland for Friday morning.
01:46Whereas to the south of that weather front, still pretty mild, at least for one more night.
01:51It will be a different feeling day, though, on Friday for the Midlands.
01:53South Wales, southwest England are dull and a damp start.
01:56And across East Anglia in the southeast, that rain will creep in fairly speedily through the morning
02:01and then linger actually into the afternoon, especially over parts of Kent.
02:06So some outbreaks of rain clearing the southeast slowly but surely.
02:09Elsewhere, brightening up, some sunny spells, but there will be showers packing into Wales,
02:14northern England, northern Ireland and plenty for Scotland coming and going through the day with snow.
02:19Over the tops of the hills blown in by that strong and gusty wind.
02:23In fact, we'll all notice that wind. I suspect a chillier feel everywhere.
02:28Temperatures compared to where they have been through the week, much lower, but actually not far off average.
02:33Probably a touch below in some places.
02:35This map is showing temperatures compared to average and we see what's most of the UK.
02:40We're in that plus three to minus three bracket.
02:42So, yes, it is going to feel colder, but it's not especially cold for the time of year.
02:47As we go through Friday evening, the rain will pull away probably by the end of the afternoon actually from Kent.
02:52And then we've got the clearest spells, lots more showers packing in particularly to the west.
02:56So for Wales, western parts of England, northern Ireland and western Scotland,
03:00where it stays very blustery with further snow likely over the tops of the hills.
03:05It stays showery into the weekend as well. Blustery, frequent heavy showers on Saturday.
03:10Some thunderstorms in the mix as well. Sunday looks like the drier day of the two.
03:14Quite a bit calmer as well with a better chance of seeing some sunny spells.
03:17But we'll all notice that cooler feel from Friday lasting through the weekend as well.
03:22For more details on the weekend, you can catch our weekend forecast.
03:26That'll be available on YouTube by Thursday afternoon.