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This is the Met Office UK Weather forecast for the next 10 days 12/08/2026.

Thursday will be an exceptionally hot day with an extreme heat warning. After that temperatures will dip to around average. Whilst there are signs for some rain in most places through next week, it doesn’t look likely that it will be enough to alleviate the drought in many parts.

Bringing you this 10 day weather forecast is Alex Burkill.

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Transcript
00:00The two big talking points with the weather this summer so far has been how hot it's been at times
00:05and how dry it's been for many places as well.
00:08A bit of a change is on the cards through the next 10 days with regards to both of those,
00:13one I'm a bit more confident about than the other.
00:16So let's start off looking at the temperatures. Here is the picture that we have for this Thursday.
00:22Yes, there's some hefty, showery rain across parts of Scotland, particularly towards the north and west.
00:27Also some showers for western parts of Northern Ireland, but most areas, especially across England and Wales, having a dry
00:33day and lots of sunshine on offer.
00:36We're also dragging in our air from the south. And so you are probably aware, but we do have an
00:41amber extreme heat warning out across central and eastern parts of England for this Thursday.
00:47That's because temperatures here could reach highs of around 36, 37, possibly 38 Celsius.
00:54Now, when you get these sort of high temperatures, well, that's when we could see impacts to our infrastructure, our
00:59railway lines, our roads.
01:01They're not designed for this sort of heat.
01:03And more people are likely to be impacted by how hot it is with regards to their health.
01:10Now, when we're looking at temperatures of 37, 38 Celsius, well, it could be the hottest day of the year
01:16so far if we get above 38.
01:17And if we get above 38.5, well, it could be the hottest August day on record.
01:22But that's actually pretty unlikely.
01:25Fortunately, humidity across parts of central eastern England, not as high as it has been through some recent heat waves.
01:33So perhaps not feeling as oppressive as some of the heat earlier on in the summer.
01:38But nonetheless, it is still going to be very hot.
01:40And further north and west, whilst temperatures will be a bit low, actually a bit lower than through today for
01:46some places,
01:46it is actually a bit more humid for some places here and still very warm, if not hot,
01:52with temperatures widely in the mid to high 20s, if not low 30s, even away from that heat warning area.
01:59Now, the hot air that's across us currently, that is going to clear away.
02:03There's a frontal system towards the west.
02:05That's actually going to decay as it comes across us, not bring a huge amount of rain.
02:08I'll touch on rain in a second.
02:10But it does bring that fresher air in from the west.
02:13Now, southeastern parts will cling on to that hot air through Friday.
02:16But I'm not expecting temperatures here to be as high as on Thursday.
02:20Nonetheless, still hot with low to possibly mid 30s, perhaps.
02:23Elsewhere, we're seeing that fresher air coming in.
02:25And that fresher air will be more widespread by the weekend when temperatures will be, well, much, much closer to
02:32average.
02:32If we look at temperatures, let's take London, for example.
02:35Here's our ECMWF graph showing what we're expecting through the next week or so.
02:41And you can see, yes, we have this peak in the heat as we go through Wednesday, Thursday,
02:46with temperatures getting to the mid, possibly high 30s.
02:50Friday is still a hot day.
02:51And then we see that marked drop down between Friday and Saturday.
02:56Now, further north and west, that drop down will happen a bit earlier.
02:59But between Friday and Saturday, that's when we're really going to see the end of the exceptional heat for the
03:05time being.
03:06Thereafter, through the weekend and through next week, well, actually, temperatures, if anything, look like they'll dip a little bit.
03:11There's obviously quite a widespread when you're looking more than a week ahead.
03:16But there aren't really many signs that we're going to see the return of anything exceptionally hot for a little
03:22while yet, at least.
03:24And, yeah, so if anything, really, temperatures are set to stay around average.
03:29Some places a little bit below, some places a little bit above, but only a little bit above average compared
03:34to what we've had through so much of this summer.
03:36Well, that's, if anything, going to feel a bit fresh for some of us.
03:41And then let's get on to the rain.
03:43I'm less confident about the change to something a bit wetter compared to how confident I am about the change
03:49to something a bit fresher.
03:50The fresher theme looks pretty certain.
03:54The wetter weather, well, that's a little bit trickier to pinpoint.
03:58So, Friday, I mentioned there's a front coming through.
04:01That's going to bring some showery outbreaks of rain, perhaps.
04:05But further showers coming in from the northwest through this weekend.
04:09Can't rule out some showers in the southeast on Saturday, but a bit of uncertainty about that.
04:14But showers could come in from Saturday.
04:17Sunday now actually looks like a largely dry day.
04:20It didn't earlier on in the week.
04:22Earlier on in the week, we were likely to see a weather system coming in.
04:25This feature here, that's now been delayed compared to a few days ago.
04:30So, actually, now, for many of us, Sunday, another largely dry day.
04:34Fresher, like I've shown you, but still often fine and sunny.
04:37But we want to draw the attention to this feature.
04:41As I highlighted, there's been some model discrepancies, some flip-flopping between the models as to how this is going
04:48to develop, how this is going to push in.
04:50So, let's see what's actually happening.
04:52Now, we have the jet stream, and that's running across the Atlantic, more across the UK, really, through this weekend
04:59and into next week, compared to what we've seen through much of this summer, really.
05:03But it's how this low-pressure system develops and interacts with the jet stream, which plays a pivotal role with
05:10how impactful it is going to be weather-wise for the UK.
05:13Now, there were signs that it would really be invigorated majorly by the jet stream, would develop quite intensely, and
05:20we'd end up with a fairly tight low-pressure system quite close to the UK by Sunday, by Monday, perhaps.
05:27But if we look at the most recent model setup, and it sticks on the colder, the northern side of
05:33the jet, but it doesn't really get to that left exit region, and so it doesn't intensify as rapidly as
05:40some earlier models really wanted to, and then it takes it up a bit further north.
05:44Nonetheless, there will be, or there is likely to be, some wet weather associated with it that will sweep its
05:51way southeastwards across the country through the start of next week.
05:55Some uncertainty about the timing of this.
05:58Some models, EC, for example, is a bit slower bringing this wet weather in, so it might be later Monday,
06:04more into Tuesday.
06:05This is our Met Office global model, our current one that I'm showing you here.
06:09But just to reiterate, there has been some discrepancy between recent model runs about how much rain we see and
06:15how quickly it pushes through.
06:17Also worth highlighting, there could be some heavier bursts in it.
06:20There could be some relatively big convection along the front as it comes across, and so do watch out for
06:28that.
06:28But even if this comes through, even if this rain, which we have highlighted in recent weeks, we've highlighted some
06:35rain coming through, and then it's never really amounted to much.
06:38So I definitely can't guarantee that this will occur.
06:40But even if it does, well, it looks like it could rattle through quite quickly.
06:44Even any heavier bursts, well, they should be relatively short-lived in any individual place.
06:50So this type of rain, it's not going to be enough to help really alleviate the drought conditions across many
06:57parts of the UK.
06:58We need some really significant, persistent rain.
07:02And this looks like, whilst it could be a bit persistent at times, it will just move through.
07:06And if anything, a lot of that rain will just run off the especially dry ground and won't be able
07:12to be absorbed, which is what we really need.
07:15Looking further ahead through next week.
07:17So yes, it could get off to a bit of an unsettled start, a wetter start than what we've had
07:22through much of this summer.
07:23And then what happens?
07:24Well, I've got two ECMWF members here, the control and then member two, because they paint a slightly different picture
07:31for what could happen as we go through next week.
07:34If we look at both of them, start off with a similar idea, this high pressure to the southwest of
07:38the UK.
07:38But how that high pressure builds varies between the two.
07:42So member two has that high pressure building in quite quickly before another area of low pressure pushes its way
07:49in.
07:49And a relatively deep area of low pressure could bring some more changeable, unsettled weather, some wetter, windier weather perhaps,
07:56towards the northwest of the UK in particular.
07:58And then as any fronts come across, you would expect a fair amount of rain at times.
08:03However, the control model hints that there could be some showery rain coming and going perhaps.
08:09But it sticks with generally high pressure dominating mainly towards the west of us.
08:14I mean, if we have that west of the UK, then we'd be dragging in our air from the north.
08:17So it won't be especially warm or hot for the time of year.
08:20But it doesn't look like it will be as wet as this member here.
08:25And, well, I looked at a number of the members I just picked two here.
08:28But they're fairly, well, there's a lot of variety.
08:32It's quite a messy setup with what's going to happen next week.
08:36So when we see a messy setup, it's a bit different to what we've had through much of the summer.
08:41Often at this summer, yes, there have been hints of rain that's not really happened.
08:44But a lot of the models have been in agreement that we'll have this high pressure.
08:48We'll have a lot of dry weather.
08:49And that's a bit of a change now for what we're expecting through next week.
08:53And I've got our meteograms from ECMWF.
08:55I just picked Leeds as somewhere relatively central in the country because this meteogram looks a bit different to what
09:02we've seen through much of this summer, really.
09:04I mean, I've already highlighted temperatures, but you can see, yes, it's hot through Thursday.
09:09But through Friday and into the weekend, temperatures drop down and then they're much nearer average for the time of
09:15year.
09:15I didn't mention it, but some places will have tropical nights through the next few nights.
09:19We see that chance disappearing through the weekend because it will be markedly fresher both by day and by night.
09:25But let's look at cloud amount.
09:27Instead of it being largely sunny, as it will be for the next couple of days, it's, you know, it's
09:32not necessarily totally cloudy, not totally overcast.
09:36But there will perhaps be a bit more cloud around than we've seen through much of this summer.
09:41And then importantly, let's look at that rainfall amount.
09:44Not a huge amount of rain to come through this weekend.
09:47But Monday, Tuesday, yes, a wetter spell looks relatively likely.
09:53Worth noting, these rainfall totals aren't especially high.
09:56But if we compare it to what we've had through recent weeks, well, it's a fair chunk more.
10:01And then thereafter, there's a large spread.
10:04So I definitely can't guarantee that there will be a significant amount of rain.
10:09It doesn't really look likely that there will be a huge amount of rain, enough to really help with the
10:15ongoing issues with how dry it has been.
10:18But there are at least signs that there will be some rain at times.
10:22It could be quite sherry in nature.
10:24It could be a bit more persistent, depending on how any low pressure systems come off.
10:28But at least there are some relatively promising signs that it's not going to be just as dry as it
10:35has been across many parts of the UK.
10:37So I'm more confident about things turning fresher by the weekend and staying with temperatures around average for the time
10:44of year through the rest of the 10-day period.
10:46Rainful amounts, well, probably wetter than it has been, but probably not wet enough to help for many people.
10:52I'll see you again soon. Bye-bye.
10:55I'll see you again soon.
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