Issued: 0530hrs Friday 19th October 2007
Duty forecaster: John Ejdowski

Windy and cold in central Mediterranean, heavy rain across eastern areas

Today
For Scandinavia and the eastern half of Europe it will be quite a cold day to come today. Windy with an area of rain, sleet and snow is likely for Finland into the Baltic States. Much of Norway and Sweden will be dry and sunny and here it becomes less windy. An area of heavy rain will stretch from Belarus into Romania, the Former Yugoslav Republic and into Greece with wintry showers for Switzerland and Austria.
An area of high pressure will give the United Kingdom, The Low Countries, Poland, Germany and France a fine, dry day with plenty of sunshine. Fine and dry as well across Portugal, Spain, The Balearics into Italy though showers may threaten the far south of Italy later. Heavy rain is expected across Greece with Turkey and Bulgaria staying fine and dry.

Saturday
The fine spell of dry, sunny weather will continue across the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and The Netherlands today as high pressure dominates. Lots of dry weather too for Scandinavia but rain and drizzle will spread into northern parts of Norway and Sweden as it turns milder here. Cloudy across Poland with light outbreaks of rain with sleety rain at times for the Baltic States.
A cold day for Austria with outbreaks of snow. A dry day across Switzerland but cold as well. A few showers will affect northern Italy but fair and dry across central and southern parts of Italy. Windy and cold across the former Yugoslav Republic and Romania with showers. Windy with showers as well for Greece but also some sunshine.
An area of heavy rain will lie across Bulgaria and western Turkey with the east fine and sunny. A fine day with lots of sunshine to come across Portugal, Spain and the Balearics. Windy with lots of showers in the central Mediterranean across Sardinia, Corsica and Scilly.