Issued: 0530hrs Friday 20th March 2009
Duty forecaster: John Ejdowski

Some snow in the east

Today
An area of high pressure will keep things nice and settled across much of western Europe. So a fine, sunny day after morning mist clears from the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. Very warm and sunny weather continues across Portugal, Spain into the Balearics. With low pressure near Italy the central Mediterranean looks very unsettled and rather windy with spells of heavy rain and heavy showers with a risk of thunder across Italy, Hungary, Greece and the former Yugoslavia. A fine, dry day across Turkey today. Showers of sleet and snow are expected across the Ukraine with light snow for parts of Poland and Belarus. Dry with sunny spells across Norway and Sweden with outbreaks of snow for Finland, The Baltic States and western Russia. Snow and wintry showers are forecast across the Alpine Region where it will be very windy.
Expect top temperatures of 15C in London, 10C for Brussels, 17C for Bordeaux, 26C for Malaga, 11C in Naples, 13C in Istanbul, 15C in Athens, 4C in Krakow, 7C in Frankfurt, 1C in St. Petersburg and 4C for Helsinki.

Saturday
Another fine day across much of Europe today. Lots of warm sunshine to come across the United Kingdom, France into Belgium, Holland and Denmark. Cooler but sunny too across Germany A lot of cloud across Poland with a few wintry flurries in the east. Dry but still windy across the Alpine Region. Another windy and unsettled day in the central and eastern Mediterranean. Expect gusty winds and heavy periods of thundery rain across Italy, the former Yugoslavia and Greece. Late in the day this moves into western Turkey. Fine and dry today across Hungary and Bulgaria. An area of rain, sleet and snow will affect the Baltic States and Russia with light snow for Finland. It is to remain dry across Norway and Sweden today with lots of fine sunshine.