Warming up in the sunshine across England & Wales today, cloudier across Scotland & N. Ireland with some rain. Similar north-south split Thursday & Friday. Turning colder for all over the weekend.
Yesterday Rhyl in north Wales reached 19.4C, making it the highest temperature of the year so, while some spots saw 12 hours of sunshine. Much of England and Wales will enjoy some warm sunshine again today after a cold start, with temperatures reaching the mid-teens across central and western areas. Scotland and N. Ireland will be cooler thanks to a cold front bringing cloud and patchy rain here. This cold front will linger across northern areas on Thursday and Friday too, bringing cloudier skies and the odd spot of rain, while southern areas will be brighter and drier, before the front eventually gets a move on southward on Saturday, followed by a much colder northeasterly flow from the arctic spreading across all parts, accompanied by wintry showers of sleet and snow for eastern areas. So just as British Summer Time starts on Sunday, the weather will revert to more winter-like conditions.
For now, another sunny but cold and locally frosty dawn across much of England and Wales, cloudier and milder across Scotland, N. Ireland and the far north of England, the cloud thick enough to bring outbreaks for rain across western Scotland and N. Ireland.
A cold front draped across Scotland and N. Ireland will move little through today, so the far north of England, Scotland and N. Ireland staying generally cloudy with patchy outbreaks of rain continuing to affect western Scotland and N. Ireland. With shelter of higher ground to the west, eastern Scotland will stay mainly dry with some brightness or sunny spells. Otherwise, much of England and Wales will enjoy another dry and sunny day, with temperatures quickly rising through the morning – reaching 15-16C across central, northern and western areas, perhaps as high as 17-18C across north Wales. A tad cooler towards coasts of East Anglia and SE England – where there’ll be a brisk southeasterly breeze.
Through the evening and overnight, the slow-moving front across Scotland and N. Ireland will keep most cloudy here with further patchy light rain, it will subtly nudge southeast enough for clearer skies to move in across the far north and northwest of Scotland, allowing a patchy frost here, while to the south of the frontal cloud and rain band clearer skies across much of England and Wales will mean frost forming here too.
Little change on Thursday and Friday, other than the front across the north will ever so slowly drift further south across the north. So, both days there will be a band of cloud across Northern Ireland, far north of England, central and southern Scotland, though high pressure tending to squeeze out most of the rain, with just the odd spot of rain or drizzle here and there. Northern Scotland drier and sunnier but turning colder, while much of England and Wales, away from the far north, will be dry and sunny and still quite mild, with temperatures reaching 12-14C generally, though cooler around coasts.
As an intense area of high pressure builds to the west this weekend, central pressure as high as 1053 hPa – which maybe close to record-breaking, this will allow a strengthening and increasingly cold northeasterly wind to sweep down across all parts over the weekend, behind that weak cold front which will eventually get a move on south on Saturday. So although Saturday will be mostly dry and sunny, a raw wind picking up making it feel cold out of the sun, some showers arriving in the east later in the day.
The showers continuing across eastern areas on Sunday, the showers wintry - falling as rain, hail, sleet and snow. Western areas mostly dry and sunny. Temperatures on Sunday widely in single figures, reaching 7-9C at best.
