Issued: 0530hrs Thursday 5th February 2009
Duty forecaster: John Ejdowski

A bit milder

Today
Heavy snow, sleet and rain is expected to push into England and Wales today. Northern parts of France will see so light rain. A fair, dry and bright day to come across Belgium, Holland and Denmark. An area of heavy rain and showers will move into southern France and also across Portugal and Spain. This rain moves into the Balearics and then later into northern Italy with the south mainly dry. Lots of dry weather is expected across the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey into Bulgaria and Hungary. Not as cold today across eastern Europe. It will be dry for Poland, Belarus into Russia and the Baltic States. Some snow will affect the north of Norway and Sweden. Southern areas will be dry and sunny as will be much of Finland.
Expect top temperatures of 6C in London, 5C for Brussels, 8C for Paris, 8C for Madrid, 16C in Rome, 14C in Bucharest, 17C in Athens, 3C in Warsaw, 6C in Berlin, -4C in Moscow and 1C for Stockholm.

Friday
A bit milder across much of mainland Europe today. An area of rain and snow will affect south east England with outbreaks of heavy rain across much of France and Spain. For Belgium, Holland and Denmark expect lots of cloud but it will be dry with a few sunnier spells too. Another band of heavy rain across the Balearics will move east into northern Italy with some snow across the Alpine Region. Lighter rain will fall across the former Yugoslavia but a fine, dry day with sunny spells across Greece, Turkey and Hungary. Some light rain and showers to come for Romania and Bulgaria today. We'll see light rain moving into Germany today while it is fair and dry across Poland, Belarus, the Ukraine and much of Russia. There is a risk of some snow across the northern half of Finland, Sweden and across much of Finland.