Remaining mild, unsettled & windy for most over the weekend, with further rain across northern areas, heavy & persistent across western Scotland. Very mild Christmas Eve, perhaps close to the date temperature record . Christmas Day remaining mild, and will be cloudy with rain at times.
It’s the winter solstice today, following which daylight will slowly increase day by day, with nights becoming shorter, though it won’t really be noticeable until February. Crowds have been gathering at Stonehenge this morning for the sunrise, which was around 8:09am, unfortunately it was rather cloudy but there were a few breaks to glimpse the sun rising.
It’s still windy out there this morning across all parts, the strong westerly gusting to 35-45mph in the west, higher with exposure. Not as windy for some as yesterday though, Storm Pia, which moved east across Sweden overnight, brought gusts of 81mph in Northumberland and 79mph in West Yorkshire. Unfortunately, this brought havoc to the Christmas getaway yesterday, particularly on some busy railway routes with the strong winds bringing trees down and damaging overhead lines on the west coast and east coast mainlines, causing disruption to services and queues at London Euston and Kings Cross for services heading north. The strong winds also disrupted air travel, with some flights diverted from northern airports. The video below shows a plane struggling to land at Manchester Airport before having to abort.
It will remain windy today, the strong westerly veering northwesterly wind is bringing a lot of cloud this morning, which is producing some showers in places across England and Wales. The showers will be most frequent across western areas, but some are making it through to the southeast. The showers will become increasingly confined to northern areas through the day, with some sunny spells developing across the south. Longer spells of rain, sleet and hill snow will affect the north and west of Scotland for a time this morning before easing to showers which will be wintry over high ground, the air colder up here. Some showers getting through to eastern Scotland. Mild across much of Britain – temperatures reaching 9-12C, but across northern Scotland we’re into colder air with temperatures reaching 5-6C.
Longer spells of rain will return from the west across Scotland tonight, falling as snow across northern Scotland, even to lower levels, as it bumps into cold air here. Some of this rain spilling down across northern England, showers for west Wales but the rest of England mostly dry with clear spells tonight. Mild frost-free night for most away from the far north.
Some transient snow across the north and northeast of Scotland to start Saturday before turning back to rain as milder air works in from the Atlantic. But staying a rather wet day across Scotland – the rain heavy and persistent across western Scotland – which may cause some localised flooding issues. Further south, western areas of England and Wales will be mostly cloudy with drizzle or light rain over hills, drier with some brightness over central, southern and eastern England. Mild for most, with cold air becoming confined to the Northern Isles, temperatures reaching 11-13C.
Some high rainfall totals are forecast for western Scotland on Saturday
A frontal boundary bringing rain to Scotland on Saturday will sink south across England and Wales and become slow-moving on Christmas Eve, bringing mostly cloudy skies, thick enough to bring outbreaks of rain across northern England, the Midlands, SW England and Wales, some patchy drizzle elsewhere. After a cloudy and wet start, turning brighter and colder but windy with showers across Scotland. Gales developing across northern and western Scotland. A very mild day, temperatures reaching 10-12C across Scotland, 13-15C across England, Wales and N. Ireland – close to breaking the Christmas Eve temperature record.
Remaining mild and unsettled for Christmas Day, a frontal system will move east across England and Wales bringing mostly cloudy skies with spells of rain, heavy across northern England and Wales. Scotland windy with showers. Mild or very mild for most, temperatures reaching 9-14C.
Looking drier and sunnier for Boxing Day, as a transient ridge of high pressure builds in across the UK, though it could remain windy with showers for a time across Scotland. Unsettled conditions look to return for the rest of the week though, with further low pressure systems moving in off the Atlantic, bringing spells of rain and wind, though some uncertainty over the track of these, as the jet stream that’s currently over northern Britain sinks further south through next week. This will mean it will turn less mild too.
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