Issued: 0530hrs Friday 30th March 2007
Duty forecaster: Simon Keeling

Showers and rain for the west, drier in the east

Today
An unsettled day through much of central Europe, thanks to a complex area of low pressure which will be centred through France and into Italy. This is going to be bringing periods of rain or showers through much of France, northern Iberia and into parts of Switzerland and most of Italy. More southern parts of Portugal and Spain will be drier with sunny spells, and this drier weather will be extending into the Balearics.
Further west a few showers are likely through the west of the former Yugoslavia, with dry weather across Greece and Turkey. It will be dry too through Bulgaria and Romania with some good spells of sunshine to come here. There will be dry conditions across most of Poland, the Ukraine and western Russia. Germany and Poland will be breezy; expect some rain in western Germany but for the eastern half of the country it should be dry.
Into Scandinavia and the Baltic States should be mainly dry with sunny spells. Cloud and rain will be affecting much of Norway and Sweden, although the western coasts of Norway should be drier with sunny spells, although it will be windy.

Saturday
Low pressure again bringing unsettled weather for much of central and southern Europe. There will be cloud, showers and rain across much of central and southern Germany, France, Spain and Portugal. Rain cloud is heavy at times through southern France and also across the Balearics Islands.
In Italy there will be a mix of sunny spells and scattered heavy showers. Further cloud and heavy showers to come in the west of the former Yugoslavia, these stretching sown into Greece and much of the west and north of Turkey. Showers too in Crete, and a risk of rain later for Cyprus.
Romania and Bulgaria look set to have a dry day. Some good spells of sunshine to come here again with the dry weather extending through Poland, Austria and Hungary as well as the Ukraine and Belarus.
Some showers will be spreading southwards through the Baltic States, with high pressure bringing dry conditions across Sweden, Norway and Finland. Thicker cloud and rain will be affecting the north and northwest coasts of Sweden, and it may be windy here too.