UK Weather - Quite a divide with heat and sunshine for SE UK and more cloud, patchy rain and okay warmth for the NW half. 33C possible today, not higher than that expected this weekend.
The heat and humidity are building especially, for SE Britain. Temperatures on Thursday crept just above 30C in several places. Up to 32 or 33C is possible today in the sunshine. About two/thirds of the UK has cloudy skies with a cold front across Britain. To the NW of the front many parts will keep more cloud but be bright and see temperatures up to 20C. There is also some patchy rain, along the cold front through the Irish Sea and over northern Scotland. NE Britain will see breaks and, in the sunshine, heat up into the low 20sC.
The main area of heat is coming from the continent into SE Britain and it’s here we will see the highest temperatures along with a close mugginess. Away to the far NW, there is cooler, fresher air with 17C the maximum for the Western Isles. There is a light westerly wind today, although hardly any wind at all for London and the Thames estuary.
The cold front will bring more cloud and patchy rain to Northern England this morning with a few heavier bursts developing over the Pennines and NE England by lunchtime. There could be an isolated thunderstorm for eastern England. The front does fade with a fine evening and night to come. The rain over western Scotland and the far north will stay this morning, so damp and grey here the afternoon the main rain will be easing but there could be a few thunderstorms for Aberdeenshire where the temperatures have climbed.
Overnight the thin frontal cloud pushes further into SE England with a north to NW wind. Temperatures in the south will only dip to 17-20C but further north it will be cooler and fresher at 12C with a westerly wind still bringing cloudy damp conditions into the far NW of the UK.
High pressure is building for the weekend and there will be plenty of fine, dry and warm weather about. Staying hot in the south. Most places will be in the twenties Celsius with 29C the expected UK high. For Northern Ireland and Scotland, again it will be high teens maybe 20C. Later on Saturday rain will appear from the NW and it will turn damp for the Islands and NW Highlands. Elsewhere stays fine and dry. Good news for anyone camping or off to a festival. Hot for Bestival in Dorset.
Another lovely day on Sunday although a new area of low pressure is heading between Iceland and Scotland, this will bring another set of fronts, so more cloud and rain which will skirting Northern Ireland and move over northern Scotland on Sunday night. The trailing cold front will then bring more cloud and showery outbreaks of rain to southern Scotland, the far north of England and Northern Ireland Sunday night and on Monday.
This frontal band will affect the temperatures. On Sunday more of the UK will feel warmer and more humid with 21C for Northern Ireland, mid to high 20sC for more of England and Wales. The heat and humidity stays over the SE half of the UK but still pleasantly warm to the NW.
Tuesday looks hot again for central/eastern and SE England, but the week will become less hot as low-pressure nudges closer in the Atlantic. That will throw showery bands and clusters in from the west. For more eastern areas, especially eastern & SE England look dry overall.
Nick Finnis's Storm Forecast for today