Issued: 0530hrs Thursday 14th January 2010
Duty forecaster: John Ejdowski

Milder by the weekend in west

Today
Drier but not so cold across the United Kingdom today. Mainly dry and bright across Belgium and Holland today but more snow to come across Finland with light snow for southern parts of Sweden and Finland. Dry and cold further north. Frigid temperatures and snow too is expected for Finland into western and northern Russia. Lots of cold buy dry weather prevails across the Baltic States into Belarus while outbreaks of snow affect Poland, the Ukraine and the Alpine Region. Some heavy accumulations are likely. Dry for northern France but heavy rain to come in the south and this extends across northern Spain with a few snow flurries across central Spain. An area of rain will also lie from the Balearics into Corsica and Sardinia with patchy light rain and sleet across Italy. More rain to come across Greece and Turkey today with a few snow flurries across Bulgaria. Cold but dry and mostly sunny across Hungary, the former Yugoslavia and Romania.

Friday
Not so cold across Britain today with some light rain. Heavier rain is expected across France with heavy snow for the French and Italian Alps. Continued cloudy and damp across Portugal and Spain with outbreaks of rain. Largely a dry, sunnier day across the Balearics with heavy showers to affect Corsica and Sardinia. Some rain to come across northern parts of Italy today but fair and dry in the south. Just a few isolated showers and sunny spells for Greece today but look for heavy rain across Turkey. Across the Low Counties it should be dry with sunny spells. Just some light snow today in the south of Sweden and Denmark other wise dry and sunny across Sweden. Heavier snow is to fall across Finland and northern Russia along with the Ukraine. Mainly dry but cloudy and cold across Germany and some light snow or snow flurries will affect Poland. Fine and sunny across the Baltic Sates with dry conditions also for Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria.