Easter's Nearly Here!

For many of us, it's the last day of the working week ahead of a four-day weekend, whoop! If you're still holding out hope for a weekend like last week, I'm afraid that ship has sailed, but equally, it's not going to be a washout by any means. And although temperatures will be a bit on the cool side at times, in the sunshine it should still feel pretty pleasant.

Today, despite a bright start in some places, the cloud will bubble up to leave most under it, with just the more occasional sunnier spells. For the bulk of the country, it will stay dry, but a good few showers will run west to east across the northern half of Scotland, these most frequent in the west initially but tending to become more widespread during the day. A few may make it further south too, but they will be few and far between.

Temperatures today will be in the not a lot to write home about category, perhaps scraping the low teens in the south, 8-12c for most of the rest of us. 

Overnight tonight, we keep the mainly cloudy skies, and a fair few showers in the northwest, where skies clear in southern and central parts though, we may see a touch of frost again. 

Then into Good Friday, we have a couple of weather fronts making their way down from the northwest during the day, so there will be some rain about. As the fronts move southeast they will tend to fade, so a reasonable shot that many central and especially southern regions will get away with no more than a splash or two of rain. Further north though, there will be some heavy outbreaks of rain about, followed behind by sunny spells but quite a rash of showers - some of which will be falling as sleet and snow over the hills.

Winds will be on the rise through the day too, becoming quite blustery, especially in Northern Scotland and Northern England, as low pressure swings through just to the north of the British Isles. With those winds moving round into the northwest too, they'll be introducing cooler air, which will make for quite a chill feel.

Quite a cold night then follows for the bulk of the country, with some showers continuing in the north and west. The south of England will see the residual cloud and patchy rain from a weakening weather front moving through overnight, so milder here. 

By Saturday, the low pressure will be out into the North Sea and heading into Scandinavia, as high pressure does it's best to move in from the southwest.

That'll mean a quieter day with sunny spells for many, although there will be some showers affecting the north of the country, with the risk of persistent rain in the far northeast. We'll still be in the cool flow, so temperatures will peak at 8-12c, perhaps 13-14c in the southeast, but with the sunshine having a bit of oomph behind it at this time of year, it should feel warmer than that if you can get a little shelter from the wind, which will continue to be quite gusty in the northeast.

After another chilly night, with some patches of frost, Easter Sunday does then bring some complications as weather fronts make a move in from the west across the northern half of the country. So some rain is liable here, but further south it's a case of more cloudy bits and sunny spells, and it should be a touch warmer by this point too, with highs stretching up toward the mid-teens. Not so warm your eggs will melt in a flash, but certainly not too bad for the time of the year.

Some uncertainty over timings on Easter Monday, but the rain which arrived across the northern half of the country on Sunday will make its way southwards. At the moment it looks as if this may clear quite early in the day to leave much of the country in the same boat of sunny spells and scattered showers. It may be that it drags its heels a little longer though to leave the south with more of a damp, cloudy day - we'll keep you updated.

Check your latest local weather forecast for the next 7 days here.