How to use our 14-day weather forecasts

Nowcasting (0 - 6 hours)

Nowcasting maps the current weather and then uses an estimate of its speed and direction of movement to forecast the weather a short period ahead - assuming the weather will move without significant changes.

At the Met Office nowcasting is combined with the latest high resolution model output to form a detailed forecast out to six hours. This forecast is updated every hour.

Short-range weather forecasts (1 - 3 days)

Short-range weather forecasts cover periods from just a few hours ahead (from the nowcasting time-scale) up to about three days ahead.

Short-range forecasts provided by the Met Office are extremely accurate and are updated several times a day.

Medium-range weather forecasts (3 - 10 days)

Medium-range weather forecasts cover anything from around three to 10-days ahead.

The UK medium-range outlook is covered in the five-day location and map-based forecasts as well as the forecaster written forecasts.

The regional 3-5 day text forecasts provide a general picture of the weather on a day-by-day basis, with the main regional variations identified. The Met Office has a good track record in advising on any significant risk of severe weather in this period.

The 6-15 day text forecasts provide a broad description of the weather likely to be affecting the UK, including significant changes in the type of weather. It also provides a risk assessment of severe weather, such as heavy rainfall, severe gales or an extended period of high or low temperatures.

Extended-range weather forecasts (10 - 30 days)

Extended-range weather forecasts cover periods between 10 and 30-days ahead. This covers the end of our 6-15 day text forecast and the whole of our 16-30 day text forecast.

If you are after a 14-day weather forecast then our 6-15 day text forecast will provide a broad description of the weather likely to be affecting the UK.

The 16-30 day text outlook (which is updated on a daily basis) provides an indication of how the weather might change, or be different from normal, (i.e. warmer, colder, wetter, drier) across the whole UK.

Met Office forecasters consider output from a range of weather models when writing these forecasts. These models include those from the Weather forecasting as well as models from other global forecasting centres such as the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).