UK weather

Headline:

More heavy showers with the risk of thunder and hail.

Today:

A cool, unsettled day with some sunny spells and frequent showers. Heaviest showers, with hail and isolated thunderstorms, develop across central and southern UK during the afternoon. Breezy conditions continue, with coastal gales later in the far northeast.

Tonight:

Showers become confined to northern-facing coasts, with long dry periods and some clear spells inland. Turning chilly overnight with local rural frost. Windy in the far northeast with coastal gales.

Friday:

A cold start with patchy frost in prone areas. Largely dry with variable cloud, a few light showers mainly eastern coasts. Breezy early in east, easing, temperatures slightly below average.

Outlook for Saturday to Monday:

Chilly occasional frosty morning this weekend, then sunny spells Saturday with rain reaching Northern Ireland. Sunday sees rain turning showery, some heavy. Monday mostly dry, rain spreading west later again.

Changeable conditions look to dominate at first, with low pressure often close by. This means periods of rain or showers, some of which could be heavy and more focussed across northwestern areas. Drier interludes are also expected, most especially across southeastern UK. As this period progresses, high pressure is likely to begin to build from the south bringing more settled weather, although with occasional showers. Temperatures near-normal to begin, but tending to recover as the period progresses, perhaps becoming rather warm by the end of the period, especially in the south. Winds will be stronger during the first part of the period, generally from a southwesterly direction, before becoming lighter in line with the more settled conditions.

Patterns which bring more settled weather are more likely to dominate towards the end of May. Whilst further rain and showers are possible at times, there is likely to be longer spells of fine and dry weather. Into June, more mixed conditions are likely with spells of rain and showers, but also some drier weather at times. Temperatures are most likely to be near or slightly above average overall, with some warm weather possible at times.