Out of the easterly breeze in the sunshine, it will feel pleasant but there is still a coolness in the shade or under grey cloud. High pressure brings a lot of settled weather but much colder by Thursday.
That was quite a grand finale from February, what a stunning weekend. Blue skies and sunshine even warmth in those rays, the beautiful full moon and last night a dramatic meteor seen just before 10pm Sunday night. Spring was certainly in the air and, meteorologically, today 1st March is the start of spring. The statistics for the 3 winter months will soon be out and just thinking about February the comparisons were incredible. The bitter cold and for some deep snow, wild gales with falling trees to the past few days of fine, dry and bright weather.
There is fog about this Monday morning which is affecting travel with a Met Office warning for the East Midlands and Yorkshire where there is thick fog in places. It is dry and chilly with inland parts of the UK dipping below zero and frost about.
This week high pressure continues to dominate our UK weather with an interrupting cold front from the north on Thursday. There will be a lot more dry, settled weather with mostly light winds and a scattering of showers on Wednesday. Low cloud and stratocumulus do feature altering the blue skies and sunshine picture to more grey, even drab skies at times where it will feel cooler, but it all keeps the flood warnings down.
At this time of year, the sunshine makes a huge difference to us. If you are in a sunny spot with hardly any breeze it will feel pleasantly warm but, in the shade, or under the cloud layer with a bit of a breeze it will feel quite different. As a result, air temperatures will vary greatly from a cold feeling 5C up to 13C. There will be an easterly flow along the Thames into London and over southern Britain, picking up through this afternoon. The same for Co. Down and Belfast, a light breeze from the east or southeast.
So, a dry, fair Monday but variations deepening on the cloud cover. Overnight more low cloud edges in from the North Sea and there will be thick fog inland for southern Scotland and northern England. Widely quite murky but still chilly and again frost for the clearer sheltered western areas. A lot of the grey low cloud will lift and break up during Tuesday, but it will be slow for some and linger for eastern coastal areas. Southern England looks warmer, more widely into double figures in the afternoon sunshine but cooler for eastern Britain where the cloud lingers.
A small low pressure over NW Spain will move north near to the Bay of Biscay and by Tuesday evening the trough associated with this will begin to produce a few showers over SW England.
By early Wednesday there could be clusters of showers over southern parts of Wales, the West Country and through the day more of Wales and southern England up into the Midlands and East Anglia may see a few showers. So, a change from the ongoing settled dry picture and the last of the showers pull away from SE Britain on Thursday morning.
High pressure then builds down from Greenland and a cold front will bring showers from the north which turn wintry and then to snow. There will be flurries to lower levels and a few cms over the Scottish mountains and tops of the Pennines. The sleet and flurries will reach down to the North York Moors. The cold north to NE wind will bring a distinct chill by day and there will be a widespread frost on Thursday night. More settled again by Friday with the high above us. Bright and fair but beware of that cold NE wind.