High pressure will bring a lot of settled, steady weather right into the weekend but the cloud cover will vary and make a huge difference to how it feels. Warm in the sunshine but chilly in the wind and greyness.
High pressure brings steady conditions but the difficulties of forecasting cloud cover. And it makes a huge difference to how it feels at this time of year. Bright spring sunshine and hardly any breeze are allowing temperatures to leap into the mid-teens. However, thick layer cloud caught up in the high pressure (or anticyclone) can bring a grey, cold gloom that lasts for days.
For many, it will be a settled, dry day but there is an area of patchy light rain affecting eastern Britain. This will move southwards, over East Anglia by lunchtime. Inland, for the south and west, will still be into double figures. Yesterday saw 17+C and a few spots could see near to that today however it will feel cooler in the north wind. It is the Equilux, the time when day and night are actually equal, occurring before this year’s vernal equinox on the 20th. “Equal light” and St Patrick’s Day.
High pressure is centred west of Ireland for the next few days with a cooler northerly flow from the North Sea. A weak weather front caught up in the flow will bring more cloud and light but stubborn rain to eastern England on Thursday and eastern Scotland by Friday. With this dampness and the cool wind, it will feel colder although well inland and again for western Britain and Northern Ireland temperatures remain in double figures and with spring sunshine reaching around 16C in places. Pershore managed 17.9C on Tuesday, Cardiff and south Gloucestershire 17.4C
The cloud cover will vary greatly. Under grey flat skies with the breeze, it will feel cool, even cold along the coast but with spring sunshine and some shelter or no wind it will continue to feel pleasantly warm.
Today Northern Ireland will see a good deal of sunshine once early low cloud lifts and breaks. Western Britain will be sunny but central and eastern areas will see more cloud, one area pulling over England and inland Wales by lunchtime with sunshine appearing for Scotland with some infill during the afternoon.
The patchy light rain over northern and eastern areas will slip southwards today. Over East Anglia at lunchtime and then London and SE England during the afternoon. It doesn’t amount to much but adds to the cooler feel of the day.
Overnight cloud creeps down over Northern Ireland through the Irish Sea into north Wales, the North Sea cloud covers more of England and the Moray coast but there could be large gaps and so sunshine. The model is showing a lot of northern Britain being clear, although some thick cloud near coasts. Worth bearing in mind when looking at a weather app. that a row of 'sunshines' or white clouds could be interchangeable. Stratocumulus under a high pressure is a fickle thing.
There is this lingering front over the North Sea on Thursday. This looks to again bring damp weather over SE Britain with The Wash and East Anglia seeing rain in the afternoon. With a north wind, it will feel cold under this.
It is a similar picture for Friday into the weekend, many places dry but with variable cloud. Often a lot of cloud, some brightness getting through but then large breaks for other areas and warm sunshine.
The thicker cloud and patchy rain could bring a wet start for some parts of eastern Britain by Friday morning. North Yorkshire into NE England, up to the Pennines and Scottish Borders see that kind of precipitation that lightly lurks in the air but soaks you.
Temperature forecasting will be tricky. There is the potential for 16 or 17C again in the southwest but also for exposed parts to be stuck at a chily 8 or 9C. The north winds veers to the NE on Friday and then eases down. So, a frost is likely in the south by Saturday morning. A quiet weekend of weather with more of the same.
