IMPORTANT : ARCHIVED CONTENT

Tuesday starts dry in much of the UK but there are outbreaks of rain in central and western Scotland. Through the day some bright spells develop but there will be more cloud than yesterday, and in eastern England a band of showery rain pushes southwards. Much of northern and western Scotland remains wet, and this afternoon patchy rain could extend into Northern Ireland and north western England. It will be windy with gales in the north.

Temperatures range from 10C (50F) in north western Scotland to 16C (61F) in the south. See the rain and lightning radar for the latest view.

Meteo France Arpege, forecast rain, 15:00 BST Tue 23rd October

Forecast short cuts

Autumn 2018 forecast

Christmas 2018 countdown

Winter 2018/19 weather  - update 3

Tonight the rain becomes restricted to northern and western Scotland. Elsewhere a mainly dry but often murky night is in prospect.

Tomorrow it's a similar picture but sunny periods may be more widespread. Patchy spells of rain continue to affect the far north and west. It will be quite windy and mild.

GFS, forecast temperatures, 16:00 BST Wed 24th October

Cold blast from Friday

Thursday will be dry and mild in southern and central counties. In the north outbreaks of rain develop and overnight they spread southwards. Much colder conditions follow as the rain clears from the south by Friday afternoon. Showers filter into the north and they begin turning wintry with some places recording their first falling snow of the season.

Saturday looks cold nationwide. Showers continue and at times they could merge to give more prolonged spells of precipitation. In the north there is a risk of snow at times and even further south a wintry mix is possible and over high ground wet snow is not out of the question.

Cold conditions continue on Sunday. Wintry showers may become more scattered as high pressure starts to push in from the west.

GFS, forecast pressure and 500Pa heights, 16:00 BST Sat 27th October

Early next week the early cold snap probably continues. High pressure could build over Scandinavia and force areas of low pressure to sink southeastwards into the continent. If that happens parts of the UK could have very wet periods and over high ground, such as the Welsh mountains, snow would be a risk. In the longer term temperatures should recover back towards the seasonal average.

TWO heads for the cloud

During the next couple of weeks we'll be working hard to migrate our website and services to cloud based servers. Very appropriately for a weather based business you may say! The transition means big changes behind the scenes and they could could lead to some service disruption and snagging problems. Once the move is complete we'll have a much flexible platform that makes it easier to expand and provide new services in the future.

Register for the TWO community

If you would like to join the TWO community please see how to register for the forum. People with all levels of meteorological knowledge are very welcome to apply. However if you're a meteorology (or related subject) student or recent graduate there may be an opportunity for you to earn some money next summer.

Forecast tools

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

1981 - 2010 daily temperature charts

Temperature anomalies

DWD ICON forecast charts

EUMETSAT high resolution satellite images

Rain and precipitation type radar

Meteo France Arpege forecast charts

Global Forecast System (GFS) forecast charts

16 day GEFS ensembles at a glance

After a mild start temperatures fall significantly below the seasonal average before beginning to recover during the first week of November. A significant risk of snow is shown in the northern half of the UK during the last few days of October. In early November the risk of rain increases in all regions. View latest GEFS.