A merry dance of extremes to keep us on our toes
It has been like one of those fierce Latin ballroom dances from Strictly in recent days, all abrupt turns and striking extreme poses. The weather pattern has been first frost, then mild, then frost again, and as this coming week progresses the mildness will be back. It makes it hard to know whether to leave in the morning with an ice-scraper for the windscreen, or without a coat. But that’s the way with our weather. It keeps us on our toes.
Today is definitely an ice-scraper day for most of us. After the highs on Thursday of 59F (15C) down on the south coast around Bournemouth, a cold front has been very much in charge this weekend, bringing freezing conditions. But after a chilly, frosty start this morning, it is about to be all change again. The next sequence in our weather twirl will begin to reveal itself as a milder air pushes in from the west, and with it cloudy skies, patchy rain but higher temperatures. Plymouth will be among the first to feel the warmth, getting up to 54F (12C), while over in London and the south east expect something more like 48F (9C). Further north in Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow it will be just 43F (6C), and in the far north the wind will be much stronger and push the mercury down further still.
There is nothing nimble about this mild front as it lumbers its way across the country, but by Monday morning and the start of the working week, it will be dominant. That means very little in the way of those wonderful winter blue skies, but absent too will be the chill that gets through to your bones. And if that set-up doesn’t suit you, fear not. Towards the weekend, there is every chance of a pivot turn and the frost will be back.