Hefty showers today and tomorrow with thunder, lightning, hail, sleet and hill snow mixed in. It's quite an unsettled week with the threat of frost remaining
We have a colder start to the working week with air working its way down from the Arctic. It will be less cold in the south for the second half of the week, just into double figures but the frost risk remains. There will also be bouts of blustery wet weather whizzing through from the Atlantic.
Storm Ewan is now heading away from Shetland, this was named by Met Eireann at the weekend as the fifth named storm of the season. Shetland has a wild start to the day with the inshore waters forecast stating:
Sea state -Rough or very rough, occasionally high at first. SW 7 to severe gale 9, occasionally storm 10
That would wake you up on a Monday morning!
It’s mild enough for the far SE of Britain around 7 to 9C this morning, but further north temperatures are around freezing, there is a risk of ice and wintry showers over the hills. SE UK won’t feel so mild as there is a brisk SW wind, especially around Channel coasts.
Showers
It will be a funny old day with bright sunshine one minute and then darkening skies and a downpour the next. The bright lines on the radar show bands of showers moving across the UK. These will mostly be of rain at low levels, a mixture of rain, sleet and snow over northern and western hills and proper snow for the NW Highlands. Snowdonia, Exmoor and Dartmoor, Brecon Beacons, Peak District into Yorkshire Dales could all see a few cms as heavy, thundery showers pass by. Low levels may see flurries or a temporary white covering of sleet or hail, then it will go.
Through the afternoon, the heavier bands reach across England and then clear into the North Sea with showers continuing to feed into SW England and Wales right into the evening. There will be something of a lull before a low pressure centre begins to head southwards close to western Scotland. Temperatures will fall below freezing for many and there will be widespread ice and frost. Inland for central and northern Britain winds will fall light and there could be patchy fog too.
Tuesday
Tomorrow should start off with a lot of bright, fine but nippy weather with a bit of a W to SW breeze across Wales and England. There will be 2 low pressure centres near to Scotland. The NW one looks set to bring rain/sleet and snow to western Scotland and Northern Ireland on Tuesday morning with windy weather around the circulation. Co. Fermanagh could see gusts around 60mph. The other low lurking away to the NE in the North Sea is forecast to keep its precipitation away from Grampian but worth just watching it. There could be a fresh E to NE wind for northeastern Britain and more cloud. The low pressure off western Scotland looks set to move down the North Channel towards the Isle of Man. Northern Ireland and the Inner Hebrides have a miserable start to the day with wintry precipitation, blustery cold winds and ice too. Bands of rain, sleet and hills now then spread over SW Scotland, NW England and into Wales by mid-morning. The rest of Scotland, much of eastern, central and southern England fair quite well during the morning with sunny spells. By the afternoon there will be a fresh W/SW winds across southern Britani, more cloud and outbreaks of rain with sleet for the hills, a bit more snow for the Peaks and Cumbria fells. SW England, Wales and Channel Coasts stay windy into the evening with gusts of 50mph possible. Scotland and Northern Ireland will then be in a colder north wind with a lot of fair weather but bands of wintry showers coming into the far north of mainland Britain.
By midweek, there is more wet and windy weather coming in from the Atlantic, from the SW this time. As it comes up against cold air over northern Britain there could be snow over the hills once more. Strong winds and heavy rain will swirl in from the west as temperatures recover, especially in the south.
Nick Finnis's Convective forecast for thundery showers