Issued: 0530hrs Wednesday 24th January 2007
Duty forecaster: Simon Keeling

Snow in central areas, showers to the south, cold north

Today
Low pressure over southern Poland this morning, with some strong winds around it. Heavy snow for Belorus and the Ukraine as well as much of Poland, the Czech Republic, Bratislava, Austria, Hungary and into southern Germany as well as the northern Alps. Over Italy there will be rain or showers, some of these wintry in the north and windy here too. Further heavy showers through the Balkans. Greece should be mainly dry and sunny, although there will be showers in the west. Over Turkey there will be further sunny spells and it should be dry and rather warm. Showers for the northern coasts of Spain and perhaps some moving through the south of Portugal and Spain too. Much of mainland Spain should be dry with sunny spells.
For the UK and France there will be a scattering of wintry showers, heaviest in the west with a widespread frost.
A cold day in Scandinavia with a widespread and severe frost. There will be some snow showers over the Baltic States and Finland, but drier elsewhere. Temperatures below freezing here.

Thursday
An unsettled day through Spain and Portugal with frequent showers here, these extending into the western Mediterranean; a few of the showers could be wintry in places. Over Italy, the former Yugoslavia and Greece there will be showers and it will be cold with snow showers in northern Italy.
For much of central Europe conditions will be drier but cold with a widespread frost.
Very windy over the west and north of Norway with rain and snow on the coasts of Norway. Inland it will be drier but also very cold with temperatures well below freezing.