The Northern Lights were in action last night and there is still a chance tonight. A cold wind will be more of a feature over coming days and more frost.
Many parts were clear and cold overnight as the last of the rain on a sluggish cold front sloped away from eastern England. There were sightings of the Aurora, the Northern Lights with some incredible pictures. Even if it doesn’t quite look like this in real life, it is still a stunning phenomenon to behold, like glory.
Anyone who was out last night will know how it was cold and it will get even colder by the end of the week. Yesterday’s frontal band of rain is just off East Anglia with the cloud still handing back over eastern England. Keeping temperatures around +6C. Much of the UK is cold with temperatures around or below freezing with a frost, so find your gloves.
There is also dense fog, mainly for northern England, southern Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland, so do take care on the roads. However, the clear skies mean it will be a fine bright morning with glorious autumn sunshine and a real nip in the air. East Anglia, London and the SE will keep more cloud and even a bit of dampness in the air at times.
Things begin to change later from the NW with a series of fronts bringing wet and windy weather. Other frontal systems may trail in from the Atlantic but the overall trend into the week is to pick up an NW or N flow and bring much colder air over the UK.
You may be thinking it feels cold enough already, but there is hardly any wind. There will be some milder air caught up with the fronts heading in from the west. The strongest winds and gales will be for the far north of Scotland and the heaviest rain for NW Scotland. Elsewhere, there will be a few blustery showers for western areas and a fine day with temperatures around 9 or 10C and more of a breeze. Northern Ireland and Western Scotland will turn grey and damp this afternoon.
There will be the possibility of more aurora action tonight, but the weather isn’t going to be as kind. England will have clear skies this evening, and it will turn cold again, still with a dribble of that old cold front over the far SE. For Northern Ireland, Scotland and much of Wales, there will be more cloud, rain in the west and NW and a brisk SW wind, with gales for exposed northern coasts. It may be worth a look before dawn for Northern Britain and Northern Ireland as the weakening frontal band will move SE bringing more cloud and patchy light rain over England later in the night. Skies clear behind this band, as cooler air and a brisk westerly tuck in.
Thursday has a slow start in the south with more cloud and dampness for the SE. This tries to clear away allowing more areas to be dry and bright, but a waving front will bring more cloud in from the SW later in the day. It will feel a bit milder at 13 or 14C for the southern half of Britain. Showery bits continue for NW Scotland with some wintriness on the peaks and it will feel cool in the wind.
By Friday, the UK is in-between the Azores High and an Arctic low with a cold flow of air heading our way.
There is a lot of variation in the models about how a Tropical Storm currently out in the Atlantic will interact with our weather. Ex-Rina could give a bit of extra oomph to a frontal band heading in later on Friday and so some heavy rain from the west. There isn’t any sign of stormy conditions but there could be strong winds and coastal gales with the rain. Other forecasts just take the fronts as a flat wave feature away to the south, the output is really quite varied.
Whatever happens with this Rina influence, the overall theme is for more frosty nights, a bitter wind chill, the brisk NW winds to take hold at the weekend but with a lot of bright weather. It will be cold but fine with sunshine. Any showers in the flow could be wintry too.
