Grey cloud for England and Wales, sunshine with frost and fog for Scotland and Northern Ireland

After another stormy weekend, the week ahead becomes more settled. Southern Britain and eastern England have a breezy start to the working week, although nothing compared to the wild weather from Storm Darragh. The wind will ease by the middle of the week. The damp weather will take its time to leave southeast England with further pulses skirting by from weak weather fronts along the English Channel. There will be frost and fog in places where the skies remain clear, with sunshine by day in the north. However, a good deal of cloud will flow in off the North Sea. This will bring grey gloomy skies to England and more damp weather for Thursday into Friday.

And as Christmas approaches what about next weekend? No sign of another storm which is good news as we all have plenty to do and for businesses, another severe weather weekend is not needed.

The Netweather radar showing top gusts, the NE flow off the North Sea and showery rain at 9:45am

There is low pressure over Italy and high pressure centred off western Scotland. In between the brisk northeasterly flow is bringing a lot of cloud and plenty of showers over England with heavier pulses streaming over Kent. If only it were colder!

This week

Scotland and Northern Ireland will have several dry days. There will be a good deal of sunshine, certainly, these will be the sunnier parts of the UK this week. However, there will be a frost by night, a severe frost inland and also freezing fog which could linger by day. Through the Central Belt on Tuesday it will be cold with Edinburgh and Glasgow at only 1 or 2C even with winter sunshine. Wednesday morning could see freezing fog issues for routes to Glasgow and for Northern Ireland. Belfast will be around 4 to 6C.

At times, Cumbria, western Wales, and even Devon and Cornwall will see sunny spells. The northeasterly flow will bring the blanket of grey cloud right across Britain. The influence of the high pressure will subdue the showers from all but southeast England by Monday night but thicker cloud and a weather front over the Channel Islands will throw a bit of patchy rain over southern England on Tuesday. Kent will feel cold in the breeze with a seemingly endless dull sky. The rain will ease by midweek and the winds drop by Thursday. For much of England and Wales, it’s back to the anticyclonic gloom setup. Steady, mostly dry weather with featureless grey skies. It will feel cold in the breeze but the air isn’t Arctic cold.

The only sign of a change is on Sunday as a low pressure scoots over Iceland. This would bring windy weather to northern Scotland and frontal precipitation to the far northwest of Britain. There are signs that the flow will turn to a westerly at the weekend but high pressure could hold its influence for southern Britain and keep the cloudy skies.