Issued: 0530hrs Wednesday 9th January 2008
Duty forecaster: John Ejdowski

Continued cold across eastern Europe but milder in the west

Today
Very windy across northern Britain as gales sweep east into Scandinavia. Gusts to 90 mph are possible across Scotland. Outbreaks of heavy rain will be spreading into Norway, Sweden and Finland where it will be preceded by snow. This area of rain will also stretch across northern parts of Poland and Germany, through Denmark into Holland, Belgium and northern parts of France. A narrow belt of rain will also lie from southern France into central parts of Spain and Portugal with dry, sunnier weather to the north and south. Colder across the United Kingdom with sunny spells and showers in the west. Cold across Austria and Switzerland with sunny spells and a few snow showers.
High pressure keeps southern parts of Germany and Poland along with the Baltic States, Belarus and Russia dry but cold. Dry and sunny weather will prevail across the Balearics into Italy, Greece and Turkey. Cold and rather cloudy across the former Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary with a few snow flurries.

Thursday
Continued windy with gales across northern parts of Europe. An area of heavy rain across Norway and the United Kingdom is expected to spread into northern parts of France in the afternoon. Dry for central and southern France with some sunshine in the south. Dry but rather cloudy across the Low Countries will rain in the evening. Mainly dry across Germany and Poland with sunny spells for Poland. Just a few showers for western parts of Iberia but mainly dry with good sunny spells for Spain into the Balearics, Italy, Greece and Turkey. Rain is expected across Sweden with sleet and snow across Finland. Continued dry today across the Baltic States into Belarus and Russia but cold. High pressure across eastern Europe will give lots of dry weather to the Alpine Region into the former Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria.