Cold weather to return next week

The past few days have seen much of the UK bathed in milder air and pleasant spells of sunshine following a week of cold and snow.

Temperatures have reached a spring-like 12C across parts of southern England, with quite a few places reaching double figures. Unfortunately, as I hinted at a few days ago, it’s not going to last beyond the weekend, with cold weather returning next week.

The cold weather is returning because of a blocking area of high pressure developing over Scandinavia. As this strengthens this weekend, it will start to push cold air westwards across Europe – eventually arriving on our shores midweek.

This weekend

However, before the cold returns next week, this weekend will offer most of us some pleasant weather. While cloud amounts will tend to vary, there will be some decent spells of sunshine – especially across southern and eastern areas.

Towards the north and west, there’ll always be a bit more cloud which could give some light rain or drizzle, but here, as with the rest of the UK, it will stay mainly dry.

Daytime temperature will be close to the average for late February at 7-12C, although temperatures will fall to around 0C at night with frost and patchy dense fog.

Next week

During Monday and Tuesday, cloud amounts will vary, with the best of any sunshine likely on Monday – although an increasing easterly breeze will start to make it feel colder.

The real push of cold air arrives during the middle of next week, which will bring more cloud from Wednesday onwards – especially to the eastern half of the UK.

After a dry start to the week, there’ll be an increasing risk of wintry showers for eastern parts of England and Scotland. However, at this stage, how much snow will fall is still subject to a huge amount of uncertainty.

The end of next week looks particularly interesting, as there suggestions from the weather models that low pressure could move in from the south, with a risk of more significant snowfall across England and Wales.

Temperatures later next week will reach 2-5C by day and drop as low as -5C at night, with frost and ice becoming more prevalent.

Asteroid spotting weather

You’ve probably heard that a small asteroid by the name of 2012 DA14 is passing close to earth this evening. While not visible to the naked eye, those looking up with binoculars or a telescope should be able to spot it.

The good news is that the weather is looking promising, with decent clear spells across much of the UK, except for western Scotland and Northern Ireland, where it’s going to be mainly cloudy.

Don’t forget, you can get the latest five-day forecast on the Channel 4 Weather website. You can also follow my regular updates on Twitter – @liamdutton