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  • 3 days ago
This is the Met Office UK Weather forecast for the next 10 days 01/04/2026.

A number of low pressure systems will track close to the UK this long Easter weekend. The greatest impacts are expected from a particularly deep low that arrives on Saturday bringing very strong winds in the north and west into Easter Day. Thereafter there’s more changeable weather to come through the following week.

Bringing you this 10 day weather forecast is Alex Burkill.

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Transcript
00:00Well, there's the potential that we could see some stormy weather this Easter weekend,
00:05particularly to northwestern parts of the UK. Further south and east, it's looking that bit
00:10drier and less windy. But let's look at the bigger picture. And currently, there is a front
00:15running across the UK. But I'm more concerned, more interested in what's happening the other
00:20side of the Atlantic. We have cold air across parts of Canada at the moment plunging down.
00:26And it's the marked contrast between the colder air in the north and the much milder
00:29warmer air further south. That's leading to an active jet stream that's then running across
00:35the UK. And it's this jet that is the driving force for a number of low pressure systems
00:40that are going to run across the UK as we go through the next few days. We have one arriving
00:46as we go through the end of Thursday and into Friday. Good Friday. That's going to bring some
00:52wet and also some windy weather. But it's another feature that arrives on Saturday that we're a
00:57little bit more concerned about. Now, initially, it starts off on the right entrance side of the
01:02jet. But as it comes towards us, it does something interesting. It crosses over the jet and lands on
01:08the left exit side. Why is that important? Well, it's that movement that leads to it deepening
01:13rapidly as it heads towards us. So it becomes a more intense feature as it makes its way towards
01:20the UK. Now, there are some question marks, some uncertainties as to the exact timing, the exact
01:26track it's going to take and exactly how deep it's going to be. But another thing to bear in mind
01:31is the shape of it. It's quite elongated low. And so that makes it even more difficult to be too
01:37precise with exactly where and when we're going to see the strongest winds in association with this
01:42feature. But it really does look like we're going to see a particularly wet and windy spell
01:47as we go through Saturday and into Easter Sunday. That then pushes through and clears away through
01:53Sunday. And is that the last of the low pressure centres for this weekend? No, there is another
01:59one coming out into the Atlantic. Fortunately, by the time that we get to Easter Monday, the jet
02:04stream is digging further south. We have a trough extending. And so that's then going to allow for
02:10the low pressure system that's quite mature low by this point to actually stall to the west of us
02:16and so I'm not expecting it to cross over the UK like the earlier lows. Instead, it's going to track
02:22a
02:22bit more northwards and even its associated fronts going to take quite a while to move across us. And
02:27so that's less likely to be as impactful as particularly the one that's arriving on Saturday.
02:32But let's look at the details. And as I mentioned before, yes, there is a front making its way
02:37southeastwards at the moment. That's pushing southeastwards then and will clear away as we go
02:42into Thursday. And for many, actually, Thursday looks like a largely decent day. Maybe not all
02:47that sunny for quite a few places. Some decent blue sky across parts of Wales, southwest England
02:53and temperatures here quite easily getting into the low teens perhaps. They're not feeling too bad at all.
02:59Elsewhere, yes, more cloud temperatures a little bit lower. And then we have some cloudier, wetter and
03:04windier weather pushing into the northwest later on. That's in association with one of those lows that I
03:09showed you earlier. Then overnight Thursday into Friday, wet and windy weather will sweep its way
03:15south and eastwards across much of the country. The rain could be quite heavy at times, particularly
03:19towards the north. And then even as it clears away, we're going to see plenty of showers following in
03:24behind. There is a trailing frontal system of sorts as well. And slightly colder air digging in as we go
03:30through Good Friday. And so that means some of those showers will quite readily fall asleep or snow
03:34over parts of Scotland in particular. Also watch out for some strong gusty winds, some lee
03:39gustiness. So downwind of places like the Pennines, for example, could see some strong gusts. Also the
03:44northern Isles through Good Friday likely to have to have some strong gusts as well. Temperatures for
03:49many, if anything, up a degree or two on Thursday. But yes, with those strong winds, perhaps not
03:54necessarily feeling it. Then looking at the bigger picture as we go through Good Friday, that area of low
04:01pressure then is up towards the northeast of us. And then we do have a frontal system of sorts that's
04:06bringing some showery rain. And behind it, we have colder air making its way in. So whilst during the
04:11day time for many, it's going to be a little bit milder, we do see temperatures dropping as we go
04:17through Good Friday and into Saturday. Now, exactly how quickly that cold air plunges southwards, that's
04:23been a little bit uncertain through some recent model runs. And so earlier runs had the milder air clinging
04:28on across southern parts until Saturday morning. But now it looks like the fresher, colder air will be more
04:34widespread. So most places waking up on Saturday morning to a bit of a chilly start. But there
04:39will be a lot of fine weather around, a good deal of dry, sunny weather to be had first thing
04:43on
04:43Saturday morning for many of us, just some wintry showers across some parts of Scotland and a few
04:48showers dotted around elsewhere. But then we need to turn our attention to a deepening area of low
04:55pressure that's coming through. It crosses the jet stream and it is going to deepen rapidly as it
05:00heads towards us. As a result, we can expect some very strong winds and also some pretty wet weather
05:07as well, particularly towards northern and western parts. Further south and east, you're avoiding the
05:12strongest winds and avoiding the wettest weather. But nonetheless, it is looking particularly unsettled,
05:18potentially stormy towards some parts of the northwest as we go through Saturday and into
05:23Sunday. This does look like a very deep area of low pressure, particularly for the time of year.
05:30The record for pressure in the UK in April is only around 961 hectopascals or millibars. And it looks
05:38like this could get very close to that, perhaps even a little bit lower than that. So that's no wonder
05:43then that we are going to see some very strong winds in association with it. There are some discrepancies
05:48between models, however. And so I've been showing you the Met Office model. And that's perhaps not the most
05:54intense when you look at other outputs. So at the bottom here, I have ECMWF, the European Centre for
06:00Medium-Range Weather Forecasting. And their models use ever so slightly different criteria. And
06:05their models highlight the potential for that low pressure centre to be very deep indeed. More intense,
06:12so stronger winds and heavier rain does have it a little bit further north and east compared to
06:17our system. So slightly further away from the UK, not tracking over Scotland as such. But nonetheless,
06:23if this comes off, well, it could be potentially pretty stormy indeed. So that's why we're keeping
06:27an eye on it. And that's why we've also issued some warnings. We have wind warnings across Scotland,
06:34parts of Northern Ireland, parts of Northern and Western England and Wales. We're talking gusts 50 to 60
06:39miles per hour quite widely as we go through Saturday into Sunday. And in exposed spots, 60 to 70, perhaps
06:4580 to 90 miles per hour possible. Then the other thing that I wanted to highlight is all of our
06:50warnings get plotted on an impact matrix where we look at the likelihood and also the impacts. And so
06:57whilst at the moment, the likelihood is just very low, or it's quite unlikely because of that
07:03uncertainty, the discrepancies between the models. So we can't be too confident that exactly how deep
07:08that feature is going to be. It's just worth bearing in mind that there are some significant impacts
07:13possible with this strength of wind. And so yeah, it could be quite a feature coming through. It's
07:20just the confidence isn't quite there yet. But we will firm on up on that as we get nearer the
07:25time.
07:26Then through Sunday, we do have colder air coming in again, we drag in some milder air for a time
07:31as we
07:32go into Easter Sunday, but then some colder air coming in from the northwest as the low pressure pushes
07:37its way towards the northeast. So that deep feature that's arriving on Saturday, that clears away,
07:41takes a little bit longer to clear the northern isle. So there's very strong winds last there through
07:46much of Easter Sunday, whereas elsewhere, we'll see the winds dropping out and then showers following
07:50in. And with that colder air, yes, again, some of those showers could be a bit wintry. So some sleet
07:55and snow mixed in with them as well. Then there's another area of low pressure out in the Atlantic,
08:00but this one doesn't look like it's going to push across the UK in the same way. It looks like
08:04it's going to
08:05kind of stall to the west of us before then edging a little bit further northwards. But one thing that
08:10it is set to do because of its position, drag in some air from the south. So we're likely to
08:15see
08:16temperatures rising again as we go through Easter Monday and into Tuesday as well. So it could be
08:21particularly mild. We're looking at temperatures, maybe mid to high teens, perhaps even getting close
08:26to the low 20s if you get any decent sunshine. But again, there's some uncertainty as to exactly how
08:32quickly this feature moves through. Some model runs have it coming through on Monday. Others don't have it
08:38pushing through until gone Tuesday into Wednesday, really. And so that's going to play quite a pivotal
08:42part in exactly when any wet weather is and also how warm it will be each day. Now, one thing
08:49I did want to
08:50highlight, if we show our 24-hour rainfall totals as we go through Friday, Saturday, Sunday and into Monday,
08:55whilst northern and western parts are having some very strong winds and there will be a fair amount of rain
09:00many days. Towards the south and east, actually, there's a lot of dry weather to be had. Yes,
09:06there will be some rain at times and it will be quite windy, but nowhere near as windy as towards
09:10the northwest. But, you know, as bank cloud of day weekends go towards the southeast, it's not looking
09:16too shabby. But this is a 10-day trend, so let's look even further ahead. Let's go past the weekend
09:22now.
09:22And, well, the probability plot paints a sort of interesting picture. At the moment, low pressure,
09:29often quite unsettled. And as we go through the weekend, that's the theme. But as we go through
09:33Monday, Tuesday, I showed you with the position of that low lingering out to the west of us,
09:37that could allow for a bit more of a southwesterly flow developing. So that's why things are set to
09:43turn a bit milder. And then as we go deeper into next week, well, it looks like we're going to
09:48get
09:48quite a zonal pattern again. So a westerly flow generally developing. And so more unsettled towards
09:54the north, perhaps a little bit drier towards the south at times, quite changeable, not, you know,
09:59not as unsettled as what we're expecting through the weekend. But yeah, fair to say it's likely to
10:03stay quite changeable. And we can see that if we look at the most likely setup. So for next Tuesday,
10:09the 7th of April, higher pressure towards south, lower pressure towards the northeast,
10:12that low pressure towards the west of us pushing its way northwards. The second and third most likely
10:17setups are quite similar, just exactly where that low pressure is, where the high pressure is,
10:21is a little bit different. But yeah, wetter towards the north, perhaps a little bit drier
10:25towards the south through Wednesday through Thursday. It's all quite similar, really,
10:29with the idea then as we go later on in the week, shifting to something a bit more westerly as
10:34opposed to southwesterly. And so that brings more unsettled weather towards more northern parts and
10:40perhaps signs of higher pressure developing by the time that we get to the following weekend. But,
10:45you know, it's only a pretty low chance, as you would expect at this sort of lead time. But
10:51nonetheless, I think it's fair to say there is going to be some more changeable weather to come.
10:55Temperature wise, well, what does that mean? Well, I've already highlighted that Monday into
10:58Tuesday, there's likely to be a spike in our temperatures, so likely to rise up. And so they
11:04could be quite on the warm side, really, high teens, low 20s, perhaps, but then they drop down to
11:09nearer normal, really, as we go through the rest of next week. So no, nothing really to write home
11:15about on that front. So I think that's all I've got to say. So worth keeping up to date with
11:19the
11:19forecast, particularly with the potential for some very unsettled weather to come this weekend.
11:23I'll see you again soon. Bye bye.
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