Tuesday saw thunderstorms break out and spread east across many parts of southern, central and eastern England during the afternoon, bringing heavy rain with localised flooding and strong gusty winds. An upper-level trough moving east triggered the thunderstorms, by creating lift and introducing colder air aloft making the air unstable with surface heating in sunny spells.
Storm looming over Heathrow Airport yesterday afternoon - taken by Nick Finnis, forecaster for Netweather
Not just here but a large swathe of Europe from England down to central Italy saw plenty of lightning, over 200,000 strikes over 24 hours through to this morning.
The weather will remain unsettled and generally on the cool side over the next 7 days, dominated by Atlantic low-pressure systems, which will bring spells of rain and showers, brisk winds, and cooler temperatures than we saw last week – which featured exceptional and record-breaking heat to see out the end of May.
The first 2 days of this month have brought more rain to parts of southern England and East Anglia than over the whole of May.
A band of rain sweeping eastwards across the UK this morning, has been replaced by sunny spells and showers this afternoon, though rain will remain slow-moving and persistent over parts of Scotland. Some of the showers this afternoon will be heavy and thundery, particularly across Northern Ireland and northern England. Temperatures reaching highs a degree or so lower than average today, reaching 14-17C across Scotland and N. Ireland, 17-19C across England and Wales.
Showers continuing overnight across the west overnight, turning drier in the east, before showers become more widespread across the UK again on Thursday, turning heavy with hail and thunder – especially across central and eastern areas. There will be sunny spells in between the showers – but it will be a cool and windy day generally, temperatures reaching 11-13C at best, dropping under any showers.
Friday should hopefully see a better day weatherwise across most parts, as a transitory ridge of high pressure builds in across the UK, so showers will be fewer with most places staying dry with sunny spells, feeling a little warmer with lighter winds too, any showers most likely in the north and west. Turning wet and windy off the Atlantic though in the far west during the evening.
Turning windy with putbreaks of rain spreading east and northeast across all parts Friday night and through Saturday, as low moving east over the North Atlantic, deepens for a time over the next 48 hours, but then fortunately weakens as it arrives close to the northwest on Saturday. It does look like a windy and cool weekend for all, with low pressure close to the northwest driving a showery southwesterly flow across the UK, though there will be sunny spells too.
The unsettled, breezy and changeable theme looks to continue during the first half of next week too, as one or two more areas of low pressure move in off the Atlantic across or near the UK, bringing spells of rain or showers at times, but also some drier and sunnier spells.
However, there are signs that high pressure may start to build in from the south across England and Wales later next week, though how quickly it does and far north is still not certain, it may not be until the following weekend. If high pressure does build, it may turn warmer and drier.
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