Wet in south, turning colder from the north on Friday

With slow-moving fronts stuck across southern areas, it's going to be another dull wet day across the Midlands and southern England and much of Wales, while low cloud has spread in extensively from the North Sea across eastern Scotland and north-east England. During the rest of today those weather "zones" will persist, though rain will tend to fizzle out across the Midlands and south, and the low cloud in eastern Scotland and north-east England will burn back towards the coast.

This will leave dry, sunny weather over Northern Ireland, western Scotland and north-west England, where temperatures will get up to 15-17C- so certainly not grey and cool for all of us! However, in the cloudier eastern and southern areas temperatures will get no higher than 10-12C in most locations.

Tonight, with a fair amount of cloud around, will be quite a mild night with minimum temperatures between 4 and 7C. A belt of rain will spread southwards through Scotland overnight, heading into northern England by dawn, while southern England and the Midlands will remain cloudy with a little rain.

Friday will be a cold grey damp day for most of us as the rain belt continues to push southwards, although brighter weather with showers (some sleet/snow on high ground) will spread into Scotland during the afternoon. It will be a cold day to the north of the Midlands with highs of 7 to 10C, but warmer from the Midlands southwards despite extensive cloud cover, reaching 11 to 14C.

So, what about the Bank Holiday weekend? Saturday and Sunday look set to be somewhat brighter than many of us in southern and eastern areas have been getting used to recently, though it will be somewhat on the cool side with maximum temperatures between 8 and 12C, and parts of Scotland and northern England will have a frost on Friday night.

On Saturday grey, damp weather will be slow to clear the Home Counties but elsewhere it will be a bright day with scattered showers, with some sleet/snow possible even to low levels across Scotland and north-east England. Frost will be widespread on Saturday night. Sunday will be a similar day for most of us, but a little warmer, and later in the day there is the chance of some more persistent rain coming back into western areas. Into Monday it's all change again though- it could well turn out to be a washout for much of the country with rain spreading in from the south-west.

Published on 3rd May 2012 10:52 Updated: 3rd May 2012 10:52