Tuesday 19 January 2010

Weather News

Received from the Met Office at 11:35

Here's a summary of the latest thinking on the weather for the next few days for the Southeast of England.
The snow risk for tomorrow (Wednesday) remains and Surrey and the Sussexes will be included in an updated advisory to be issued shortly (see http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/se/se_forecast_warnings.html). Another fairly grey day today with perhaps a little drizzle in places.

The risk of snow for Wednesday remains for a large part of the region. There is still some uncertainty in amounts of snow and how these are distributed across the region but this is how it looks at the moment.

The system coming in from the west and bringing the rain, sleet and snow looks to be arriving into Hants and West Berks by about 0300/0400. It then spreads east across most of the southeast region during Wednesday morning. There remains the risk of some snow during the morning and early afternoon. Areas most risk look to be West Berks, Oxon, inland Hants, inland Sussex and Surrey. There is still considerable uncertainty in the amounts of snow and it's distribution across the region but these counties could see 4-7cm of snow in places with 1-2cm possible elsewhere. Along the south coast the precipitation will mostly be of rain but could turn to snow for a time later. As we go through the afternoon any snow (or rain) will become lighter and more patchy even in the worst affected areas and, by late evening most places should be dry. Temperatures overnight will hover around freezing with a risk of some ice.

After a dry morning on Thursday morning, wet and windy weather will spread from the west during the second haf of the day although it will probably be late evening before it reaches Kent. This will be a relatively mild system but the rain could be heavy at times. There will be some strong south to southwesterly winds with it. The rain should clear through overnight with most places having a dry day on Friday. A fine day looks in prospect for Saturday followed by a chilly night and then a quiet day on Sunday too.

Looking further ahead, the cold air hangs around just to the east of the country so, while no further significant snow is signalled at the moment, we need to remain cautious.