Met Office daily weather: Drizzly showers with some bright, sunny spells

The next couple of days will be dominated by cloudy skies, patchy rain, and variable temperatures.

Friday will see bands of patchy rain affecting parts of north-east Scotland and, at times, eastern and south-eastern England. There is also a risk of a few drizzly showers elsewhere, though these will be generally light and scattered. Much of the country will experience often cloudy conditions, with some sunny spells breaking through, most reliably to the west of hills in the south.

Temperatures on Friday are expected to be slightly higher in western and south-western areas if cloud cover clears, with some downslope winds providing a boost. Isolated spots could reach 16 to 17°C. Overnight, conditions remain highly dependent on cloud cover. Where skies clear, particularly across northern Scotland, temperatures could fall to 0-2°C, bringing a risk of frost in more sheltered northern sites. However, where cloud persists, minimums are unlikely to drop much below 8-10°C.

Friday night will see little change in the overall pattern, with further patchy rain or drizzle at times. Cloudy skies will prevail, though the best chance of clearer conditions will be in the north, to the lee of Scottish mountains, and possibly in the far south-west. There is a risk of localised fog patches under any clearer spells, but these are not reliably signalled.

Outlook for Saturday

Saturday is expected to be dry for many areas, albeit fairly cloudy to start. Low cloud is likely to break for most, allowing bright or sunny spells, though increasing medium and high cloud will turn the sunshine hazy as the day progresses. Rain will likely spread into western areas during the afternoon, becoming heavier and more persistent into the evening. Winds will be generally light at first but will pick up in the west through the day. Daytime temperatures will be near normal for most, though locally chilly early on under any cloud breaks.

Met Office presenter and meteorologist, Alex Burkill, said: “Today is really quite cloudy for many but perhaps a bit more brightness, a bit more sunshine here and there across some parts of Northern England, parts of Wales, southwest England as well, maybe even Northern Ireland seeing some brighter breaks at times. Otherwise quite cloudy and again a few spots of rain here and there for eastern parts of Scotland, east and southeastern England and also across parts of southwest England.

“It could be a little damp at times, but generally dry, generally light winds, but once again under the cloud, feeling a bit cool despite the light winds. If you get some sunshine though, just feeling that bit warmer as you would expect. Then as we go into this weekend, well, Saturday is looking fairly similar to today. Albeit some rain starting to push in across parts of Northern Ireland later. And we are then going to see that wetter, windier weather feeding its way in across many parts as we go through Sunday.”