Issued: 0530hrs Friday 28th October 2011
Duty forecaster: Simon Keeling

Central and eastern Europe enjoys fair weather, but the west is cloudier and cold

Friday
A fine, dry day to come across England today. An area of rain and heavy showers is expected across eastern Spain into the Balearics. Mainly dry across western Spain, Portugal and France with sunny spells up across Belgium, The Netherlands into Denmark.
Dry too across Germany into Poland, The Baltic States into Belarus and Russia under high pressure but colder going east. Fine and sunny across the Ukraine into Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.
Some heavy showers will affect the southern half of Italy, fine in the north and also across into the former Yugoslavia and Hungry. Showers are expected around Corsica and Sardinia. Cold and windy across Norway with rain and snow showers while heavy rain affect Sweden. Cloudy across Finland with light rain.

Saturday
A fair day for most of Portugal and Spain. However, thicker cloud over eastern Spain and the Balearic's may produce some spots of rain, with strong winds affecting the Balearics and southern Spain. France sees some showers in central areas, but overall the day is likely to be fine with sunny spells. More sunshine to come through Germany and Poland and it should be dry here as well.
Italy should have a fair day with some spells of sunshine, with the eastern Mediterranean enjoying the sunshine too. It will be windy with a few showers in Turkey, these showers affecting parts of Bulgaria and Romania as well.
To the north the Baltic States will be dry with sunny spells through the day. Finland is going to be generally dry too with more spells of sunshine here. This dry weather extends to Sweden, whilst Denmark and Norway are likely to have some cloud, but they should be dry.