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Issued: 0730hrs Thursday 26th May 2005
Duty forecaster: Simon Keeling

Bank Holiday sunshine?

As the Bank Holiday weekend approaches, the weather has decided to throw in some clangers which are causing question marks for the weekends forecast. Depending on where you are in the country you might get a fine, warm weekend, whilst just a few miles away it could well be wet.

It will certainly be a changeable one, with gales for the west and north on Saturday, and then a return to much lighter winds for Sunday.

My latest thoughts are that for Saturday much of England and Wales, away from the west coast,. will have a warm and fair day. There will be sunny spells, and just a low risk of a shower breaking out. For western and northern Wales it will be windier, with gales in places, and a mix of sunny sells and occasionally showers, especially later.

For Northern Ireland and Scotland the day is likely to be windy. There will be cloud and showery rain over Northern Ireland, this perhaps reaching northwest England later, with further showers in Scotland and more persistent rain to the north.

Onto Sunday and the winds blow themselves out overnight. I'm thinking that sunshine and showers are the order of the day across Ireland, Scotland and later, northwest England. For much of England and Wales it should be dry, although cooler. The exception seems likely to be the far southeast where some thundery rain may clip Kent, Sussex and Essex. We need to watch this one carefully though, as any westward movement could result in a wet day for much of southeast England and East Anglia.

As for Bank Holiday Monday showers seem likely to be more widespread over England and Wales, a few of them heavy. Much cooler weather in Scotland, although drier here, until showers affect northern and eastern coasts in the afternoon and evening. However, confidence in the forecast for Monday is low.

Whatever the weather, keep the sun shining.


Simon