The risk of frost continues and it is chilly out of the sunshine but the fine, dry spell continues this week as the temperatures creep up, closer to average rather than below as they have been.
High pressure is right over the UK bringing another fine, settled day. Overall, there are light winds, it is dry and there is plenty of sunshine about with a cold, frosty start. Many inland areas have temperatures around zero, down to -3 or -4C for northern Scotland so not as cold as the night before. There is mist and fog about too and patches of low cloud giving a grey start for some. The thicker cloud over Sussex is giving a few showers to start the day
Through the day most places stay dry and fair. There will be just a few showers for western Britain with mid-afternoon for Wales and SW England seeing a scattering, just a few for NW England and Scotland but hardly any here. Just a slight interruption as we settle into the rhyme of this dry, often sunny but nippy week.
Again, in the sunshine it will feel warmer but, in the shade, and after dark it will be cold. For inland and western areas temperatures are creeping up a touch into double figures with 10 to 14C. It’s still below average but the sunshine helps. For the east coast of England and later Scotland it will feel colder with a breeze off the North Sea and the patchy low cloud.
Any showers in the SW fade this evening and there will be another quiet, cold night with frost and a bit of fog or mist about. Temperatures widely fall down to around zero with some rural spots a few degrees below. After the warmth of late March, it is a shame for gardeners that these ongoing frosts are holding back growth with tender plants needing protection and seedlings too. European vineyards are really struggling with these hard frosts, taking to lighting tiny fires to protect their crop.
By Thursday morning there will be a scattering of showers in the far south of the North Sea and the northeast wind will bring them towards SE Britain. So clipping Norfolk and Suffolk and Kent but also a few over Lincolnshire, Essex, maybe the odd one into Cambridgeshire, Greater London and Sussex. There will be more cloud over East Anglia and gradually SE England during the day, although still with bright spells and temperatures of 8 to 12C. Some parts of western Britain and Northern Ireland could see 13 or 14C but any eastern areas in the breeze will still feel cool. The flow of showers will also reach the Channel Islands by Thursday afternoon with a maximum of only 11C and overnight down to +3C. For most the dry spell continues.
Weekly precipitation across England and part of Wales from Met Office radar data.
The steading high pressure begins to elongate over Scandinavia on Thursday as low pressures pile up over Iceland. Some of the high cirrus will reach western Scotland and Northern Ireland but the fine conditions continue. Here the frost will be kept at bay in a brisk southerly wind overnight but another cold night for the rest of Britain.
The frontal boundary lurks away to the NW on Friday, still out in the Atlantic but keeping the southerly flow ahead of it. These fronts will wave in at the weekend bringing more cloud and rain to Northern Ireland and west coast Scotland on Saturday and possibly over more of Scotland (not necessarily the east), Cumbria and Gwynedd by Sunday but some uncertainty here. It could just stay further west, and the settled, fine weather continues for more of Britain.
Temperatures do look to be creeping up further, just a degree or so through the weekend into early next week with 15 or 16C appearing for the SE, still not that warm but on the up. For many, the settled, dry weather continues, just losing that nippy cold edge.