Still Cool But Fewer Showers

Thursday dawns bright and chilly in many regions with temperatures in some sheltered inland areas having dropped down close to freezing where skies cleared overnight. It's slightly less cold around windward coasts where a north-westerly breeze continues to blow scattered showers ashore.

For many places there will be some sunny spells around this morning but cloud will bubble up with a scattering of showers breaking out again as we go through the day. On the whole the showers will be lighter and less frequent than they were yesterday, but for a few places a subtle change in wind direction could mean there will be more showers with parts of northern Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern and western Wales at greatest risk.

It will be another rather chilly day for the time of year with top temperatures ranging from 10°C to 13°C in the north and 14°C to 17°C in the south, but with the winds somewhat lighter compared to yesterday and a bit more in the way of sunshine it won't feel too bad with a bit of shelter.

Showers will tend to become confined to coasts in the north and west tonight, but a few will run down the east coast of Scotland and England as the winds veer more northerly. Otherwise for many places it will be a fine, dry and largely clear night which means temperatures will drop down into the low single figures in places and low enough for some frost in rural spots.

This means a chilly start for Friday but, once any early showers in the east die out, tomorrow is then looking mainly fine and dry for many places. However, increasing cloud and wind towards the northwest of the UK will herald the arrival of the next Atlantic low pressure system with rain moving into much of Scotland and Northern Ireland by the end of the day.

METEOROLOGIST : BARBER