High Pressure To Win Out?Added : Saturday at 16:30 Although the weather across Britain and Ireland is rather quiet at the present time it is not a settled story with some areas seeing a rather wet Saturday afternoon as shown by the latest radar image:
Some locally heavy rain is now affecting south-eastern regions of the country and there are also some beefy showers towards the southwest. Away from these areas and it is a glorious May afternoon as the visible satellite picture shows:
Let's take a look at the forecast sea level pressure (SLP) chart for tonight:
The UK and Ireland under what is virtually a textbook col set-up with low pressure to the northwest and southeast while high pressure resides to the northeast and southwest. This leaves us under very light winds and slow-moving weather patterns, which is why that frontal system across eastern Britain isn't moving anywhere very fast. It will still be there tomorrow bringing outbreaks of rain to these areas whilst many other areas are drier and brighter apart from the odd shower in the west and southwest:
Looking ahead to next week and changes will be very gradual as the low over mainland Europe initially deepens, bringing a brisk breeze to start the week across south-eastern regions:
Before the low from the northwest decides to head towards Scotland on Tuesday bringing freshening winds and rain to the northwest:
The cold front associated with this feature then looks set to cross the country during the middle part of the week as a relatively weak affair, but it will introduce a cooler air mass again for the end of the week:
Thereafter high pressure looks set to have a go and could succeed as there is growing model consensus on settled conditions taking over by next weekend...here is the GFS:
The GEM:
And the ECMWF:
If this verifies as suggested then there is the possibility of some cold nights under clear skies at the end of the week:
But some pleasant daytime values which would feel warm in the strong sunshine and with light winds:
All in all plenty of pleasant late spring weather is on the cards for many regions in the coming week but it may not be until the end of the week before high pressure fully asserts itself and takes control.
METEOROLOGIST: BARBER |