The working week ends on a changeable note for many regions as low pressure slowly moves away to the northeast. Further showers or longer spells of rain will affect many areas today before drier and fresher conditions gradually edge in from the west.

Thursday saw more than 50mm of rain fall across parts of the Midlands, leading to some localised flooding following the recent very dry weather, although some other areas saw little, if any, rain. Today will bring further showers or longer spells of rain circulating around that area of low pressure, but once again there will be significant local variations. Some places could see prolonged spells of heavy rain while others experience only brief showers with brighter intervals in between.

Initially, most of the showery rain will be across more northern and western regions but they will spread further south and east across England and Wales as the day progresses. Meanwhile, drier and brighter conditions in the far west will gradually extend eastwards into many western areas during the afternoon. It will remain rather warm across the south and east of England with temperatures reaching the low to mid-twenties, particularly where it stays mostly fine. Cooler and fresher conditions will move into western regions on an increasingly brisk wind though.

Showers will gradually clear away to the east this evening and tonight, eventually becoming confined to the far northeast of Scotland, leaving many places drier with some clear spells. However, the next band of cloud and rain will soon arrive from the southwest, reaching much of southern Ireland, Wales and southwest England. This rain, locally heavy at times, will sweep eastwards across central and southern parts of the UK tomorrow accompanied by strong winds across the south. Outbreaks of rain will also affect Northern Ireland along with southern and western Scotland before clearer but more showery conditions follow from the southwest later in the day while northeast Scotland should become drier and brighter following a damp start.

METEOROLOGIST : BARBER

Lightning Strikes ► Radar ► Airmass ► Visible Satellite ►