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Issued: 2100hrs Sunday 13th March 2005
Duty forecaster: Simon Keeling

Get set for Sunshine

One of the best parts of being a forecaster at the Weatheronline Weather centre, is being able to bring good news about the weather; and that’s exactly what we can report today.

The cold conditions of the past few weeks finally look to be on their way out during the coming days, being replaced by more unsettled weather moving in from the Atlantic.

Now, whilst this means rain, and some of that possibly heavy, the southwest winds do also bring much milder conditions. In fact, by the end of the week and into next weekend the weather may be feeling positively spring like.

The reason for the change in the weather is a large area of low pressure developing in the middle of the Atlantic by Monday afternoon. This will bring a broad swathe of southwest winds through the British Isles and Ireland, pushing frontal cloud eastwards and bringing bursts of rain.

By the end of the week high pressure starts to build over central Europe and this nudges into the British isles, making the winds turn more to a southerly direction. If this happens we can look forward to sunshine, away from western coasts, and temperatures into the high teens!

One problem we are keeping an eye on is the risk of heavy rain, bringing flooding. This may occur at anytime during the coming 7 days, and the Weather centre is closely monitoring the probability over Ireland, Wales, northwest England and Scotland. At this stage, widespread flooding doesn’t appear likely, but as always, we’ll be keeping you informed.

Keep the suns shining!
Simon