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Cold start to the New Year

[Updated 08:00 31/12/2016]

New Year's Eve begins with wet weather in northern and western Scotland. Elsewhere it is a mostly dry and less cold than recent mornings.  

Through the day heavy rain push southeastwards into Northern Ireland and northern England with colder conditions and wintry showers following on behind. Southern and central regions remain dry.

It will be mildish across much of the country but this afternoon it turns colder in Scotland. See the rainfall and precipitation type radar for the latest view.

Tonight the south stays dry but wet weather pushes down into central regions and on its northern edge there is a chance of it turning to wet snow. The north has a cold night with frost and wintry showers.

During New Year's Day rain will be reluctant to clear away from the south and over higher ground it may turn to sleet or wet snow at times. Central and northern regions have sunny spells and wintry showers.

On Monday it remains cold but showers become more isolated to leave a good deal of dry and bright weather. Tuesday should be dry in the south but in the north patchy outbreaks of rain are expected.

During the second half of the week another Arctic plunge is forecast to develop during. Beyond this there is the possibility of high pressure building over Scandinavia and bitterly cold Siberian air moving in from the east. Buzz looks at the likelihood of a potent easterly blast.

Ensembles at a glance

The 16 day GEFS ensemble shows a cold start to the New Year. Temperatures then pick up but quickly fall away again and a moderate chance of it turning extremely cold is shown.