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  • 17 hours ago
This is the Met Office UK Weather forecast for the week ahead 11/05/2026. A cool and showery week ahead with some heavy downpours at times and hail and thunder too. Will you see any sunshine? Bringing you this week’s weather forecast is Alex Deakin.

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00:01A typical week ahead if we were in the first part of April.
00:05Temperatures are going to be below average for mid-May.
00:07There'll be some pockets of frost and there will be plenty of showers.
00:10Here's the bigger picture.
00:11The jet stream in this kind of reverse S type shape going north-south across the UK,
00:17allowing low pressure to be sitting to the east and high pressure to be sitting to the west.
00:22And in this setup, well, the winds, even at the surface, also tend to come down from the north.
00:27And we're not going to see a great deal of change through the week.
00:29The jet stream shifts a little bit further west, but still allowing low pressures to drift down
00:34and sit around the North Sea, generating northerly winds at the surface
00:40and therefore keeping things on the chilly side.
00:43So some warmer air sitting way out to the east and the cooler air across the UK.
00:48Yes, it may get a little milder through Tuesday,
00:52but then the colder air just continues to feed in from the north
00:56through the rest of this working week for sure.
00:58And with that cooler air comes plenty of showers.
01:01Now, having said that, it won't rain all week.
01:04Far from it, there will be still some sunshine.
01:06In fact, much of the south starting dry on Tuesday morning.
01:09But this set of weather fronts just trickling south,
01:11bringing quite a bit of cloud across northern Britain to begin with.
01:14And some outbreaks of rain just slowly spreading south.
01:17And the showers really kick in behind that.
01:19Much of the south dry for most of Tuesday.
01:22The cloud thickening over the Midlands, East Anglia, and the southeast with some bits of rain
01:27as that front fragments by the end of the afternoon.
01:31Following that, as I said, there will be some showers, but also quite a bit of sunshine.
01:35Generally a fine afternoon for much of central or southern Scotland and a good part of Northern Ireland.
01:40But the wind's coming in from the west or northwest, bringing a chill.
01:44In the south, we might reach 15 or 16 Celsius in the sunny spells before that weather front arrives.
01:49And that may well be the peak of the temperatures through this week.
01:52Certainly not as cold in these eastern areas for Tuesday compared to Monday.
01:58Still a notable wind chill, but that wind not coming quite as strong on that east coast.
02:03So it'll probably feel a little warmer here.
02:06Now, as we go through Tuesday night and into Wednesday,
02:09this next area of low pressure starts to establish itself, pushing its way down.
02:13So Wednesday's a showery day everywhere.
02:16Again, it will feel quite chilly with the winds coming in,
02:19particularly in these northwestern areas exposed to that wind.
02:22But lots of showers right across the UK, heavy ones as well.
02:26Thunderstorms likely hail mixed in and temperatures struggling between the showers.
02:31Yes, the sun may pop out briefly.
02:33And with that brisk wind, it does mean the showers will tend to zip through.
02:37But equally, that's brisk wind bringing a cool feel,
02:41with temperatures struggling to get much above 10 or 11 Celsius across the north,
02:44maybe 13 or 14 further south.
02:47But when you add on that wind, it'll feel more like single digits pretty much across the board.
02:52So yes, a chilly feel to Wednesday.
02:55And expect plenty of showers to come and go through the day wherever you are.
02:59Now, that low does start to edge away by the time we get to Wednesday night and into Thursday.
03:03And this large area of high pressure still sitting way out to the west does try and influence things.
03:09But you can see the curvature there, the isobars.
03:11The low is really winning.
03:12So Thursday will be another showery day.
03:15And those winds, if anything, coming more down from the north, particularly over northern Scotland.
03:19Yes, there will be some snow mixed in over the hills.
03:22And again, where we see the showers, which will be pretty much everywhere at some point through the day,
03:26they could well be heavy.
03:27And again, thunderstorms are possible.
03:30Again, temperatures struggling generally below the average for the middle part of May
03:34by some three to five degrees quite widely as this map is showing.
03:39Temperatures compared to the middle of the month average below pretty much across the board.
03:45And we've still got the similar setup as we head into Thursday night and into Friday.
03:49Signs of weather from trying to topple in from the northwest.
03:52We may see some more persistent rain coming in.
03:54But generally, with a northerly flow, we will see more showers.
03:58But perhaps more of them focused across these eastern areas on Friday.
04:02And with that northerly wind, that's going to feel pretty cold on these North Sea coasts.
04:06But further west, signs of the high pressure may be influencing things.
04:10So perhaps a better chance of a drier day for Wales, Northern Ireland, Western Scotland and southwest England.
04:16Can't completely promise it at this stage, but it does look a bit drier in the west for a time
04:20through Friday at least.
04:21Whereas further east, there will be more showers to come.
04:24And this just finally showing the accumulations of the rain building up through the week, showing that nowhere is immune
04:30from the showers.
04:31Every day, the rain just tops up and tops up with northern and western areas, particularly hills facing the breeze,
04:38seeing more of the showers and the largest amounts of rainfall.
04:41But also showing we're not expecting huge amounts of rainfall overall because the showers will be tending to move through
04:47on that fairly brisk wind.
04:49And finally, finally, just as we head into the weekend, a little ridge of high pressure is trying to topple
04:54in.
04:55But we've got low pressure trying to come in from the northwest and still low pressure hanging in and around
05:00the North Sea.
05:01So it's a messy one as we head into the weekend also.
05:05As always, for the day-to-day detail, do keep up to date with everything from the Met's office.
05:09Best way to do that, follow us right across social media.
05:12And if you haven't done so already, you're watching this on YouTube, then please do hit subscribe.
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