Nick Finnis

Spells of rain or showers with sunshine in between affecting most areas today, snow over northern hills. Storm Nelson arrives tomorrow, bringing gales to southern coasts and windy elsewhere with further showers. Showers and wind easing somewhat into the Easter Weekend.

Yesterday saw everything but the kitchen sink thrown at us, with snow, large hail, gales, thunder & lightning. Today sees more sunshine but still windy with some sharp showers. Fortunately the weather looks to calm down over the weekend, with fewer showers, lighter winds and turning warmer.

Low pressure will remain in the driving seat for the rest of this week, bringing further spells of rain or showers, increasingly windy later in the week too. Scotland will be in colder air, which will mean snow over the hills at times, rather mild for England and Wales.

After a snowy start in Scotland this morning, turning milder and increasingly windy into the weekend as Storm Kathleen arrives to our west, bringing gales and rain to the west and warm air further east. Temperatures will reach 20-22C across eastern England.

A dry, sunny respite in the south today, before a showery end to the week for all tomorrow. High pressure builds in from the Atlantic this weekend, bringing mostly dry conditions with sunshine in the west, but it will remain cloudy and cool in the east

We keep a chilly northerly flow going through much of the coming week, especially noticeable in the east. Cloud and rain spreading south Monday, but after that, most places largely dry until later in the week, when it looks to turn more showery.

Parts of central United States are amidst a multi-day outbreaks of severe thunderstorms which unleashed destructive tornadoes across parts of Nebraska and Iowa on Friday, with more severe storms and perhaps another tornado outbreaks expected over the central and southern Plains today.

Following a cool second half of April, it will turn warmer as we head into May this week. However, with low pressure close by, there will be some rain at times, more particularly in the west; eastern areas will be drier, sunnier, and warmest.

General perception from many is that April was a cold month, but statistics would suggest otherwise, with the average temperature for the whole month coming in just above the 30 year average for the UK as a whole. A warm first half to to the month averaged out the cold second half.

Showers in places today and especially tomorrow, but Tuesday onwards high pressure will build across the UK, bringing increasingly drier, sunnier and warmer conditions, though Scotland will turn cloudier with some rain from mid-week. Temperatures reaching 20-23C later in the week