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Wednesday starts murky but mostly dry. Through the day bright spells develop in much of the country. In the far north thicker cloud brings some patchy outbreaks of rain and later this afternoon they become heavier in western Scotland. It will be quite windy 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 cloud cover, 15:00 BST Wed 24th October

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Tonight it will be drizzly in the north west and more persistent rain continues in western and northern Scotland. Elsewhere it remains dry.

Tomorrow southern and central counties have a dry day with variable amounts of cloud. In the north outbreaks of rain spread southeastwards and at times they could be heavy. By the evening colder and showery conditions reach the far north.

Meteo France Arpege, forecast rain, 16:00 BST Thu 25th October

Cold blast from Friday

Early on Friday patch rain clears from the south and much colder air follows from the north. Showers develop in the north and around coastal counties. In the north they turn increasingly wintry with snow over higher ground leading to significant accumulations over the Scottish mountains.

Saturday looks cold nationwide. Showers continue and at times they could turn to snow at low levels in the north. In eastern England there is a chance of the showers becoming prolonged at times. If that happens they may turn wintry and over high ground wet snow is not out of the question.

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

Cold conditions continue on Sunday. Wintry showers may become confined to eastern areas as high pressure pushes in from the west.

Cold start next week

Early next high pressure is expected to build over Scandinavia and force low pressure systems to sink southeastwards into the continent. That could lead to cold and wet periods in the UK 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

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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.