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Tuesday begins with a scattering of showers. Through the rest of the day sunny spells develop but there will be further wintry showers with most of them in coastal counties. Temperatures range from 3C (37F) in Scotland to a mild 8C (46F) in the south west. See the rainfall and precipitation type radar for the latest view.

Tonight central and western areas have clear skies and a widespread frost. In the east wintry showers continue and they may push inland during the second half of the night. With more cloud cover frost will be patchier in the east.

Tomorrow and Thursday it's a similar picture. All regions have a cold and bright conditions but there will be further wintry showers. By Friday it becomes mostly dry but in the north west patchy rain could return from the Atlantic.

Less cold weekend

During the weekend high pressure becomes centred slightly farther southeast in the Atlantic. That leads to less cold air rolling over the top of it and pushing down across the UK. Weather fronts also bring the risk of patchy rain.

The yellow shading on the GFS chart below indicates milder upper level air.

GFS 00z, 28th Nov, Pressure and 850hPa temperatures, 15:00GMT, Sun 3rd December

Milder next week

The longer term outlook is uncertain but during the last 24 hours computer models have been backing away from the cold scenario they were favouring. The latest data shows cold air struggling to push southwards and high pressure building over the near continent. That is the pattern we have seen in many recent mild winters.

ECM 00z, 27th November, MSLP and 850hPa temperatures for 20:00 GMT, Sun 3 December

Late update

Apologies for the late homepage update today. There have been a number of technical problems on the site this morning which have now been mostly resolved.

TWO news

Buzz looks at the medium term. TWO's fourth winter discussion update has been issued. The winter forecast covering December, January and February will be issued this week.

Christmas countdown

TWO's annual Christmas Countdown continues.

16 day GEFS ensembles at a glance

Colder conditions are shown returning this week. By the weekend it turns less cold and in the longer term there are signs of more changeable conditions. View latest GEFS.