Frosty This Week

After an unsettled weekend of weather which saw everything but the kitchen sink being thrown at the country, the outlook for this week is a rather chilly one as cold northerly winds dominate for much of the time thanks to low pressure to the east and high pressure sitting to the northwest. Weather conditions won't be too out of the ordinary for January though with the main features being hard overnight frosts but mainly fine days for many areas.

Firstly we have the troublesome weekend low to clear and this process takes up the start of the week with cold air returning south as the low moves out over the North Sea, deepening as it does so. This deepening process means that strong north/northwest winds will develop for a time, especially along eastern coasts, whilst wintry showers will spread back south for a time.

The main theme for much of the rest of the week will then be for cold conditions to dominate with the winds and wintry showers slowly easing back to windward coasts. Hard overnight frosts will form, especially over the snowfields, and temperatures by day, despite there being plenty of sunshine for much of the time, will struggle to climb much above freezing so ice will be a hazard at times.

We are monitoring potential developments for Wednesday where an area of low pressure is expected to track eastwards to the south of the UK. There is a risk that some rain and snow may affect southern counties of England for a time but the bulk of bad weather looks like impacting northern France.

As we head towards next weekend there are signs of some changes as high pressure to the northwest begins to weaken with pressure rising over or close to the southeast of the UK. This could allow milder air to return, especially to northern and western regions, but southern and eastern regions may hang onto the rather cold conditions for longer.

METEOROLOGIST : BARBER