The UK is out of the Arctic air for the time being, with temperatures quite widely climbing into double-figures today. But, it's only going to be a brief respite as the cold will return from the north later on.
The UK is out of the Arctic air for the time being, with temperatures quite widely climbing into double-figures today. But, it's only going to be a brief respite as the cold will return from the north later on, behind a cold front.
Thanks to low pressure, which is just to the north of Scotland, we have a couple of fronts in play today. The first, a warm front, will clear eastern England during the morning. This one has been a weak affair with just some patchy, light rain along it, but what it has done is introduce (slightly) milder air. The second is the cold front which will bring back the cold air behind it, and that's already bringing some rain into the far northwest.
With low pressure nearby, it's also windy across Scotland and Northern England, with northern Scotland, particularly seeing gales and later on today, even severe gales for a time, before the low eases away into the North Sea during the early hours.
Away from the action, across a good part of England and Wales, it'll stay mostly dry, barring the odd shower, with those in the north and west most prone. It will often be cloudy, though, with bright or sunnier intervals at a premium. Temperature-wise, 8-12c will be typical for the bulk of the country.
Through the second half of the day, the cold front in Scotland will continue to ease its way south. As that happens the winds will crank up for a time, turning into the north across the far north of Scotland.
Colder air will also be arriving, with increasingly wintry showers being blown across the country's northern half. There'll be a widespread frost behind the rain band across Scotland, the far north of England and the northern half of Ireland, but ahead and underneath it, temperatures will stay above freezing.
By first thing Friday (yes, Friday already - got to love these short weeks!), the front will be across central England and Wales, bringing some heavier bursts of rain with it. It's going to be a struggle for it to make too much more progress south during the day, with the patchy rain tending to stick over southern England once it gets there. Further north, though, there'll be sunnier skies thanks to the return of Arctic sourced air, there'll be some showers around though - particularly across Scotland, and with cold air in situ, many of those will be of sleet, snow or soft-hail.
Unless you're under the front, temperatures will make it into double-figures again quite widely over central and southern England along with Wales on Friday, but head further north into that colder air and maxes of 4-7c will be more like it.
Overnight, some showers will continue in the north and west, but with often clear skies, there'll be a widespread and, in places, hard frost from the Midlands northwards. Cloud with patchy rain, sleet and snow will continue to affect southern and perhaps central England. That threat will continue into Saturday, as low pressure moves nearby from the Atlantic and into France, although there's a lot of uncertainty over this.
Elsewhere Saturday, it'll be another cold day but with long sunny spells inland and a scattering of wintry showers. After a widespread frost overnight, Sunday should have lighter winds for many, so not feeling quite so cold. But there'll still be some showers dotted around, interspersed with good spells of sunshine. Later on, with winds starting to swing into the west, bringing less cold air, some rain may arrive into the northwest of Scotland.
