Alan Partridge was in the hottest place in the UK yesterday, the fine city of Norwich up to 28C (82F) on Tuesday, wearing an apt but unusual baby blue safari suit for his film premiere. This morning, a very different story, as much of Norfolk is seeing heavy rain, just clipping Norwich before 8am. This band of rain links northwards up to the Central Belt. I'm in East Lothian and it looks like another haar (sea fret) day out of my window but No, the radar shows the vivid colours of the heavy rain heading into the Lothians as this rain heads north. Just a few early thunderstorms along Hadrian's Wall too. That's the main line of heavy rain but there are also heavy showers for N.Ireland, Anglesey and the Channel Islands to start the day.
There is an area of low pressure in the Atlantic, flinging its fronts and lines of showers across the UK today. That unsettled story stays through into the weekend, as the low slowly sinks towards the Bay of Biscay.
N.Ireland is in for a lot of heavy and thundery showers today. Temperatures of 20C in the gaps when sunny spells appear. Wales will have an improving day, after a cloudy morning with showers, it will become fine and dry and sunny, up to 23C in the southeast. For Scotland, in the far north and the far south there is sunshine to start the day. The Central Belt is seeing the very heavy rain which is moving north, heading for the Western Isles by late afternoon. The heaviest rain (with thunder) will be over Argyll, Stirling and Perthshire before lunchtime. Ahead of this rain, there will be sunny spells for the Moray coast and the Minch with temperatures up to 21C and as the rain clears southern Scotland, the warmth increases in the afternoon sunshine. For much of southern and central England there will be good weather, after a slow showery start. The day becomes drier and sunnier and warm once more with temperatures of 26C inland. Northern England will have cloudier skies and showers this morning but see more sunny spells in the afternoon with temperatures of 24C. However, there is the threat of isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. A few along the Pennines and Cumbria heading for southern Scotland by evening, one or two for the higher ground inland of SW England and a few for the East Midlands.
Overnight, generally quieter although still a few showers over northern Britain and temperatures staying up around 14/15C.
Friday looks bright and fine for England and Wales with more sunshine in the afternoon. N.Ireland also seeing some sunny spells but a few hefty showers and for Scotland, a real mixture of heavy showers and warm sunny spells. Temperatures still between 21 and 25C.
The weekend sees similar temperatures in the 20sC, warmer on Saturday than Sunday. There will be a lot of sunshine about but still a scattering of heavy showers, more for Scotland on Saturday, more for Wales, N.Ireland and SW England on Sunday. Added to this, is an ominous area of heavy thundery rain looming in northern France. The various forecast models have different tracks for this wet weather as it heads north over the Channel to the UK. A more western path brings rain to southern England during Saturday afternoon, up through England and Wales Saturday night and will bring a wet cooler day to Scotland on Sunday. With a more eastern path, it could come over SE England Saturday afternoon head to the Wash and skirt up the east coast of Britain through Sunday morning.
