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Tuesday starts with light wintry showers in eastern England. Elsewhere it is dry and clear periods overnight have led to a touch of frost. The rest of the day brings a good deal of dry weather but there will be further scattered showers. Sunny spells develop with the best of them in the west. 

Temperatures this afternoon range from about 5C (41F) to 8C (46F). See the rainfall and precipitation type radar for the latest view.

Tonight outbreaks of rain and hill snow spread eastwards across Scotland. Other parts of the UK stay dry and clear spells lead to a frost.

Tomorrow the south will be dry but after a bright start cloud builds. The northern half of the UK has wet and windy weather, and in the west outbreaks of rain become heavy.  

Arpege 00z, forecast precipitation, 16:00 GMT Wed 21th March

Second half of the week

During Thursday a band of rain slowly pushes across Northern Ireland and into western Scotland. Elsewhere it remains dry and sunny spells in the south east make it feel warmer than recently.

Through Friday outbreaks of rain move eastwards across all regions. The weekend looks set to bring a reasonable amount of dry and bright weather but there will be showers too. Temperatures won't be far from the seasonal norm.

Cold blast for Easter very possible

The first half of next week is looking changeable. All regions can expect rain at times but in the south there should be more emphasis on dry and mild periods. 

A major change probably takes place during the second half of the week as the UK becomes sandwiched between high pressure to the west and low pressure to the east. That opens the gates to a plunge of cold Arctic air and a renewed snow risk. A northerly flow this late in the season brings the greatest risk of wintry conditions to the north, but ensemble models suggest that even in the south the chance of snow falling during the Easter period is close to a 50%. Statistically a White Easter is more likely than a White Christmas in the UK.  

The GFS forecast chart below is for Thursday 29th March. It shows a northerly flow starting to become established over the UK.

GFS 00z, surface pressure and 500hPa heights, 12:00 GMT Thu 29th March

Spring forecast

The TWO seasonal forecast covering the meteorological spring (March, April, May) has been issued. The monthly update for March is also online.

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16 day GEFS ensembles at a glance

Temperatures gradually recover at the start of the period. In the run up to Easter it turns colder again and the risk of snow remains, particularly in the north. View latest GEFS.