The UK is set to see some warmer temperatures this weekend as the colder than average weather seen so far this April eases its grip.
Temperatures have been steadily climbing since the exceptionally cold weather towards the start of the month, with today through to Friday set to see double-digit figures for many places.
On Saturday temperatures will be generally between 11 and 13 °C, feeling much milder than recent days. However, the weather will be wet, fairly windy and unsettled for many parts – with the best of any drier and brighter weather in the south and east.
Forecast chart for midday Saturday shows low pressure moving in from the Atlantic to bring mild but wet and windy weather for most of the country. High pressure still dominates in the south and east, bringing the best of any drier and brighter weather.
Warmest day of the year so far
Sunday looks set to be the warmest day of 2013 so far, with temperatures expected to be widely in the mid-teens Celsius. While the weather will be slightly more settled than Saturday, many places will see cloudy and breezy conditions with a risk of some light showers.
Once again the south and east will see the best of the weather, with drier and brighter conditions and temperatures of 15-18 °C – with a possibility that some isolated spots could reach around 20 °C.
Leading in to next week temperatures look set to cool slightly, but remain around average for the time of year.
Jet stream shift brings milder weather
The reason for the shift away from the colder weather is the re-alignment of the jet stream, a band of fast moving westerly winds high up in the atmosphere which tends to guide Atlantic weather systems. It’s these weather systems that bring us the mild and unsettled weather we normally expect at this time of year.
During the prolonged cold conditions the jet stream tracked far to the south of the UK, guiding those mild weather systems towards the Mediterranean. The UK, meanwhile, saw an easterly flow – bringing in cold conditions from the cold winter climes of north-east Europe.
Now the jet stream has started to shift its track, moving north to a position more in line with what we’d expect at this time of year. This means we expect to see milder, but also more unsettled weather coming in from the Atlantic over the coming week or so.
Official blog of the Met Office news team 
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Dear Met, the reason isn’t the jet stream moving. The reason is the ‘mechanism’ that positions the jet stream. The ‘jet’ is, after all, the ‘resultant’ of the mergence of the Ferrel and the polar convective cells. It is the streaming of a small amount of air at altitude down the resultant baroclines carrying resultant momentum from coriolis effects. It’s energy is negligible compared with the cells it ‘appears’ to separate. It is what scientists call a ‘product’. Please ask Julia Slingo to ‘correct’ my comments. It is the relative energy distribution within the respective cells that positions the ‘jet stream’.
Jet trending poleward= warming
Jet trending equatorial=cooling
Dear nuwurld, I am a fanatic as far as the weather is concerned! I am a very keen Fly fisherman and like to plan ahead etc…However what you have writtEn above will pass over most peoples heads and they just wouldn’t understand it all . As complex and deeply meaningful as it is ! I appreciate what you have had to go through to qualify/quantify to make comments and advise as you have done , but most people who just want to know what the weather is going to do just want that simple information, as per the weather reports on TV etc… But thank you for that input and I do appreciate where you are coming from.