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This morning wintry showers continue in eastern areas but they become lighter and more scattered. Elsewhere it will be mostly dry and cold with sunny spells. Through the afternoon cloud builds in northern areas and in the north west patchy outbreaks of rain develop.

Maximum temperatures range from 2C (36F) in Scotland to 5C (41F) in the south. See the rainfall and precipitation type radar for the latest view.

This evening frost returns to the southern half of UK early on. In the north it becomes cloudier and milder with some rain and during the course of the night the damp conditions spread southwards.

Tomorrow will feel raw in the south with quite a lot of cloud cover and a few spots of rain. The north has a milder day and another area of wet weather spreads into northern Scotland.

Overnight and into Sunday the area of rain pushes southwards but it becomes fragmented to leave a mainly dry afternoon. Temperatures will be up on recent values. 

Next week remains uncertain

Monday and Tuesday are set to be rather mild with cloud and patchy rain. During the middle of the week an area of low pressure deepens in the Atlantic and pushes eastwards across the UK. That brings the potential for a very wet and windy period during Wednesday and Thursday. As the low pressure moves away cold Arctic air probably returns southwards across all regions. There is uncertainty about how long the cold conditions will last for and the potential snow risk but on balance a fairly transitory spell is favoured.

The ECM forecast chart below shows cold air pushing southwards across all of the UK by 00:00GMT, Friday 8th December.

ECM 00z, 01 December, MSLP and 850hPa temperature forecast, Fri 8th December

TWO news and winter forecast

The TWO winter forecast covering December, January and February will be issued in the next 36 hours. This year it has been particularly difficult to reach a conclusion. 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.