Sundays SystemAdded : Friday at 13:30 It's been a while since we said Normal Service Resumes as far as the UK weather concerned, but for this weekend it's a case of Norm... Oh hang on... Maybe not.
This is the current synoptic chart with the freezing level shown :-
You can see low pressure to the North of the UK which keeps this nagging Northwesterly flow of colder air coming in across all parts of the UK.
Nothing too unusual about this as it's a case of snow showers for Northwestern areas and brighter yet colder across Eastern parts.
The thing we tend to look for in these systems are more organised systems which approach from the West or Southwest. With the moisture comes milder air which rides above the colder air initially and allows snow to fall to lower levels.
We have a couple of these features which we are keeping an eye on. The first comes tomorrow :-
You can see how the ICON model resolves this with the front sort of scraping across parts of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and into Southern England. The risk of this frontal system falling as snow across Northern Ireland and higher ground of Wales is moderate at the moment, although most of this will be for higher ground above 150m. The ICON model takes this a little further East across Central and Eastern England on Saturday evening which is something which we are keeping a close eye on too :-
Then we come to Sunday. This frontal system coming in from the Southwest is an interesting feature. It's a warm front, but it comes in just at the right time. First, clear skies overnight on Saturday will allow temperatures to fall across much of the UK, in fact , this is the 6am temperature forecast :-
Then, as the sun rises you have a veil of high cloud which delays the temperature rise (diurnal variation as we call it) and this allows the front to continue to run into colder air as seen here :-
Milder weather and a thaw setting in behind this front, but if you have travel plans on Sunday then keep an eye on that frontal system. A cm or two could well accumulate for a time before the temperature rises and it turns to slush before finally melting on Sunday evening.
METEOROLOGIST : MARSH |