Yes, this week will be warming up and after the cold northerly flow of mid-May, it’s about time. Temperatures in the UK have been struggling around only 11 to 14C for most, with a few spots in the south of England managing to reach 16 or 17C. By Friday, it will feel warmer everywhere with temperatures up to 27C in SE Britain. By Saturday, there is the potential for temperatures to reach 30C but cloud and thundery showers may inhibit that jump. And it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, so the promise of hot, sunny weather is making UK weather forecasters nervous.
Might be time to check your sunscreen stocks, is it out of date? UV safety has been in the news this month.
Before that, there is rain and heavy showers in the forecast as the temperatures begin to creep upwards. We have lost the chilly northerly and in a more westerly flow, Atlantic low pressures will bring unsettled weather to the UK in the next few days. One weather system arrives from the west on Monday night with frontal rain for Tuesday. Another low heads our way midweek, but the rain becomes more confined to the northern and western parts as southern Britain becomes drier and warmer.
Netweather Radar at 11:25 on Monday 18th with ten highest temperatures in sunny eastern England. A scattering of showers, with frontal rain appearing over Ireland
Monday
After a sunny but cool start in northern Scotland and NE Britain, other parts of the UK are seeing increasing cloud and some showery outbreaks of rain. High cloud is piling in from the west ahead of the first low pressure with more of a breeze from the S or SW. There are gaps where fair weather will continue today. Northern Ireland will stay bright, NW Scotland seeing more sunshine but SW Britain will be grey and damp.
The shower clusters will push north through Scotland and eastwards over England, with some turning heavy and thundery this afternoon. Temperatures will be widely 12 to 15C.
The frontal rain will reach Cornwall, Devon and Pembrokeshire this evening with increasing cloud ahead of it. The shower activity over northern mainland Scotland and eastern England will ease into the night as damp weather moves over Northern Ireland, the Irish Sea, Wales and more of SW England.
Tuesday
Gardeners and growers will be pleased to see some rain, but the frontal band becomes more patchy as it trundles north and eastwards early on Tuesday. There will be some heavier bursts on the back edge ready ot catch morning commuters and those on the way to school. And although there will be a brighter gap, heavy showers will soon break out. These will nudge north and east during Tuesday, again with the risk of thunder and lightning. In any sunshine it will feel warmer though with temperatures widely 14 to 18C with a light to moderate southerly flow.
It really will be a mixed and changeable day but if you get caught in a downpour, you will know about it.
The frontal rain will reach the Northern Isles by mid-afternoon in a brisk SE wind. Much of the UK will be in the mixed 'sunshine and showers' weather with a SW breeze and the showers continue through the night.
Wednesday
The southwesterly flow on Wednesday will bring scattered showers across the UK, but fewer for southern Britain as pressure begins to rise. The far northeast of mainland Scotland could see some heavy showers again. There will be a good deal of cloud from the west but brighter spells in the east.
Temperatures will have shifted up a notch again, 15 to 21C as we await the combination of high pressure and more sunshine, with even warmer air heading our way.
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