Gone is the Scandinavian high and in comes the Azores high. The biggest difference between the two is lighter winds and brighter skies and with dry air, we’re seeing quite the temp difference (diurnal) between day and night.

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Always that bit cloudier, mistier, murkier the closer you get to the North Sea Coast where winds will be fresh, even strong along the SE Coast of England but head further west and you’ve got the bright or sunny skies. Don’t rule out a ‘convective shower’ this afternoon since lower atmosphere is stable and warming more at this time of year.

Clear skies last night allowed temps to fall sharply, dipping to -4C at Katesbridge, Co Down. Tonight, after a mild day with highs of 10-15C, it will easily drop back to freezing or slightly below. Some spots over Northern England and the West-Central Highlands may go from 14 or 15C this afternoon to -3 or 4 by tomorrow morning.

GFS: This Afternoon

GFS: Thursday Morning

Atmospheric setup is near perfect for a large diurnal swing at this time of year!

As we head for Thursday-Friday that high bringing our more settled conditions drifts SW enough to allow fronts to push down from the north on it’s eastern flank, that means cloudier, cooler conditions with the return of more precipitation or in a more widespread form anyway. Even at that, it’s more in the way of longer spells of ‘patchy’ rain. Nothing too serious.

The trouble with this more unsettled theme to end this week is it’s timing. We’ve got 3 interesting features going on. 1) Super Moon 2) Solar Eclipse and 3) Spring Equinox. The cloudier skies quite qidely across the UK by Friday means your going to be lucky to see the solar eclipse.

Partial Solar Eclipse (NASA)

Super Moon (NASA)

As we head Friday into Saturday, the ridge BRIEFLY regroups and actually builds just north of the UK with a SW to NE orientation of it’s axis. That means we pick up a chilly, stiff northeast breeze straight off Scandinavia. It will be chilly but once again, like we’ve seen in recent days, it is no ‘beast from the east’ I’m afraid.

Much More Westerly Influence Next Week

Late weekend into next week sees the shift I’ve talked quite a bit about in recent posts as high pressure sinks south and this opens the door to more Atlantic influence. By removing the boulder from the river, the water runs freely and it’s the same with the atmosphere above.

Luckily for folks across central Europe and even the S UK, ridging holds and so it’s warmer and drier here but further north, systems freely track west to east across Northern Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands into Denmark and so expect frequent wet and windy spells.

ECMWF surface

Notice 2 things in the below precip charts for the upcoming 7-10 days. There’s TWO streams going with arguably a more active SOUTHERN stream into Iberia and the Med and the fact that precip amounts increase more in the day 7-10 rather than upcoming 7 days for Ireland and the UK.

See today’s video for the discussion…

Coming Up….

NEW April Outlook

– Official Summer 2015 Forecast

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Tags: azores high, partial solar eclipse, solar eclipse, spring equinox, spring weather, uk spring weather