Sunny and dry for many today, but showers will affect the north and western coasts. Spells of rain spreading east over the weekend, cold in the north, mild in the south.
Thursday was a windy day, the strongest gust was 82mph recorded at the Needles on the Isle of Wight, with gusts of 70mph+ across SW England and Wales too. The secondary low that brought yesterday’s strong winds is now way to the north, but the parent low is just to the northwest of Scotland and will bring a windy day with showers for northwestern areas, with gales across northern Scotland. Further south it will be less windy than yesterday, but still with some showers around in the west. A north-south divide will develop this weekend, turning chilly in the north, with showers across Scotland turning wintry, across the south it will be mild, with spells of rain moving through both days across England and Wales.
For now, it’s a windy start to the day for Scotland and western coasts further south, with gales towards western coasts. The strong southwesterly wind is driving lines of showers across Scotland and the far north of England, though eastern coasts are staying dry. Elsewhere it’s a mostly dry and bright start, other than a few showers affecting Northern Ireland, Wales, Devon and Cornwall.
The strong southwesterly wind across the north will continue to feed in showers for the rest of the day across Scotland, northern England and N. Ireland, always heaviest and most frequent across the northwest. Gales across northern Scotland, with gusts of 50-60mph possible. The rest of England and Wales seeing a mostly dry and bright day, a few showers continuing over western hills and coasts and along English Channel coasts. Mild in the south, temperatures reaching 10-12C, single figures in the north, with 8-9C.
Showers continuing through the evening and overnight across western Scotland and NW England, otherwise most areas seeing showers fade to leave a dry first half to the night with clear spells, before cloud thickens across the west in the early hours and rain moves in across Northern Ireland, Wales, NW England, Midlands and SW England before dawn.
Another low moving in off the Atlantic, this time tracking further south, will spread persistent and locally heavy rain east across England, Wales and southern Scotland Saturday morning, before clearing the east coast in the afternoon, brighter and drier conditions following for most late morning and through the afternoon. Northern Scotland seeing sunny spells but also some showers, mostly in the west, wintry over hills, with snow for the Highlands. Colder across the north, temperatures reaching 6-8C at best for Scotland, N. Ireland and northern England. Further south milder with temperatures reaching 11-13C.
More rain over the weekend, particularly for England and Wales
More rain will spread east across England and Wales Saturday night, lingering for a time across SE England Sunday morning, before clearing to brighter weather from the west, with showers in the west. After a bright and cold start across Scotland, with a frost locally and some showers in the west, cloud will thicken in the afternoon heralding rain which will spread across N. Ireland then much of Scotland, turning to sleet and snow over higher ground. Temperatures reaching 7-8C across Scotland, a mild 10-14C across England and Wales.
North-south divide temperature-wise this weekend
The weather remaining unsettled and changeable next week, as further lows move off the Atlantic and track east or northeast across the UK and Ireland, bringing spells of wet and windy weather, with sunshine and showers in between. Colder at times across Scotland, which will mean precipitation will turn wintry at times, with snow over hills.
