Issued: 0530hrs Wednesday 9th November 2011
Duty forecaster: Simon Keeling

Fair to the east, but rain in the west

Wednesday
An area of rain will lie from western England into Portugal and western Spain. Dry across France today with a good deal of cloud but sunnier in the south. Cloudy but dry across Belgium. Fair and dry with cloud and sunny spells across the Netherlands, Denmark into Germany, Poland, The Baltic States into Belarus. A colder, dry, mostly sunny day across Norway, Sweden and Finland. Feeling very cold across Finland with a strong north wind. Snow is expected across Russia today with rain and snow moving in across the Ukraine. Sunny and continued dry across Romania, Hungry, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Showers are expected across southern parts of Italy and will be heavy and thundery. Dry with sunny spells across northern Italy, the Balearics into eastern Spain.

Thursday
A few showers over central parts of Spain, but dry with sunny spells for the rest of Portugal and Spain. Some cloud and rain over the west of France, with some heavy showers affecting southern areas of the country.
High pressure will be centred over Finland and this will have a major influence on the weather of eastern and central Europe. There will be plenty of dry weather with some sunny spells here; breezy through Poland and northern Germany. A few showers for Austria, Hungary and Switzerland.
Heavy showers could affect parts of Italy, especially the south and west. There could be a few showers in Greece too, although much of the country should be dry. Sunny spells and dry weather in Turkey but some cloud and rain for Bulgaria and Romania.