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Tuesday begins dry across most of the country but there is a lot of cloud cover. Through the rest of the day sunny spells become increasingly widespread in southern and central regions. In the north it becomes cloudier and windier, with outbreaks of rain slowly pushing southeastwards across Northern Ireland and western Scotland.

Maximum temperatures range from 14C (57F) in the north to 23C (73F) in southern and eastern England. See the rain and lightning radar for the latest view

Meteo France Arpege, forecast rain, 16:00 BST Tue 28th August

Forecast short cuts

The month ahead - August

Winter 2018/19 weather

Tonight the band of wet weather pushes down into northern Wales and northern England. Behind it there will be clear spells and scattered showers. Areas ahead of it it stay dry.

Tomorrow the outbreaks of rain in the north edge southeastwards but they become increasingly fragmented and light. In the south east there is a possibility of heavy and thundery showers but the risk looks less widespread than it did a few days ago. In other regions it stays mostly dry with sunny spells and variable amounts of cloud.

KNMI HIRLAM, forecast rain, 11:00 BST Wed 29th August

High pressure building 

By Thursday a ridge of high pressure will build across the UK. That leads to a dry day but there will be a fair amount of cloud and with the upper air mass not being particularly high temperatures won't climb much above 21C (70F).

It's a similar picture for most areas on Friday, but the high pressure area will be toppling southeastwards and that allows disturbances from the Atlantic to bring rain to the north west.  

This weekend southern and central regions should be dry and there are indications of it turning increasingly warm. By Sunday temperatures may reach 27C (81F). On Saturday a band of wet weather affects the north but that dries out as it pushes southeastwards into the high pressure area to leave a fine and warm Sunday.   

Mostly fine next week

High pressure is expected to continue to boss the weather across the UK for much of next week. That leads to mostly dry and fine conditions. Temperatures possibly reach 28C (82F) in the the southern half of the country and there are signs of the  warmth filtering northwards. The greatest risk of rain is either from an area of low pressure pushing up from the continent to bring thundery showers to the south or from Atlantic disturbances brushing north western areas.

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Forecast tools

Check the latest satellite images, computer model charts and rain radar:

1981 - 2010 daily temperature charts

Temperature anomalies

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Rain and precipitation type radar

Meteo France Arpege forecast charts

Global Forecast System (GFS) forecast charts

16 day GEFS ensembles at a glance

A good deal of dry weather is shown for much of the country during the next 16 days. Temperatures fluctuate early on but through the first third of September there is a strong signal for them to be above the average. View latest GEFS.