This is the Met Office UK Weather forecast for the week ahead 23/06/2025. Last week's heat has been swept away by cooler and more changeable westerlies but higher temperatures and more humid air is never too far away to the south. Bringing you this week’s weather forecast is Aidan McGivern
00:00Hi there and welcome to the Met Office Week Ahead forecast.
00:03It's often at this time of year that we see what has been termed a return of the westerlies,
00:07in other words, a return of more of an Atlantic influence on the UK's weather, a pick up
00:12in the strength of the jet stream following a lull in activity that we often see during
00:17the spring and the first part of June.
00:21Generally at this time of year, temperature contrasts across the normal hemisphere begin
00:25to increase again and that tends to fuel a stronger jet stream.
00:29I'm going to be talking about the jet stream a fair bit over the next few days.
00:33Indeed it is the westerly winds that have swept away the heat that peaked on Saturday in Surrey,
00:3933 Celsius, widely low 30s across many southern and eastern parts of the country, culminating
00:45in quite extensive thunderstorms, frequent lightning and hail across parts of northern England and
00:51southern Scotland.
00:52Nevertheless, cooler air now in place as we start the week and we keep that cooler air
00:57for Monday night.
00:58But as we begin Tuesday, a sign of something a little more humid returning with this warm
01:04front moving into western parts of the country by dawn, bringing extensive cloud cover and
01:10outbreaks of persistent rain across parts of Scotland, northern England, Wales, the southwest
01:14and Northern Ireland.
01:16The rain during the morning tend to fizzle.
01:18It's always going to be wettest over western hills, drier towards the south and east and brightening up slowly into the afternoon.
01:26Some sunshine reappearing through south and east Wales, the middle is east, Anglia and the south.
01:30Some brightness there for Northern Scotland as well, albeit with some showers.
01:34Feeling cool in the north but warmer and more humid to the south and the dividing line between the more
01:40cold front.
01:42And really that sets the scene for the rest of the week.
01:44We're going to see this north-south contrast staying cool and changeable in the north.
01:50Often more humid towards the south with some sunshine at times.
01:54And this dividing line will ebb and flow north to south across the country because that's where the jet stream will be sitting.
02:02On Wednesday we start the day with some sunshine in the far south-east and across parts of Scotland and northern England.
02:08But a few showers here and there.
02:10More extensive cloud through Wales and the Midlands.
02:12Some outbreaks of rain during the morning easing into the afternoon.
02:15And look at the temperature contrast.
02:17Again, high teens, low 20s in the north but 27, 28 Celsius towards the south-east.
02:21And feeling very humid once again.
02:23And that high humidity could lead to the development of some thunderstorms across northern France drifting towards south-east England.
02:30The exact track of these thunderstorms on Wednesday evening, early hours of Thursday, open to doubt at the moment.
02:37There's every chance that they will hit the south-east of England and bring some impacts.
02:43But if they just go in slightly more of an east direction then they'll miss south-east England entirely.
02:49So that's something we're going to be keeping a track of over the next couple of days.
02:52And we'll keep you updated.
02:53Elsewhere across the UK we've got some weather fronts moving through overnight, bringing some showery rain.
02:58And more of a brisk westerly airflow by the start of Thursday.
03:03But those outbreaks of rain and the early showers move through.
03:07It brightens up nicely by late morning and into the afternoon.
03:11Some sunny spells.
03:12And it's going to feel a little cooler once again.
03:15Certainly we'll notice an uptick in the winds and could affect some of the set-up for Glastonbury.
03:21But otherwise it's going to be a cooler day with temperatures back to the low to mid-twenties.
03:28Now, on the other side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, over North America, this is Tuesday, we've got this developing jet stream.
03:35We're really picking up strength across North America.
03:38And subtle differences in how this develops during Tuesday and Wednesday will impact our weather for the rest of the week.
03:44But it looks likely that an unseasonably strong jet stream will develop across the North Atlantic and head towards the UK for the end of the week.
03:52And that's going to bring that strengthening of the wind that I mentioned on Thursday and into Friday.
03:57We keep those keen breezes from the west.
04:00It's also going to bring outbreaks of rain predominantly as we start off Friday across Western Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northwest England and parts of Wales.
04:09Dryer to the south on the other side of the jet stream.
04:13And throughout the day on Friday, I suspect that there will be some brightness to be had across eastern and southern parts of the UK.
04:20But it looks likely that we're going to see what's going to be quite cool, I suspect, where we get those outbreaks of rain across Western Scotland and Northwest England.
04:31High teens, low 20s, towards the south and southeast, feeling quite humid once again, 24, 25 Celsius drying up there across the southwest for Glastonbury, Worthy Farm.
04:44And warming up as we go into the weekend across many southern parts of the UK at least.
04:50We've got this ridge of high pressure trying to nudge in from the south, pushing the jet stream further north for a time.
04:56And in fact, allowing the jet stream to take more of a southwesterly path.
05:00And that would import higher humidities and higher temperatures into southern areas whilst it stays cool and changeable further north.
05:08So that's how things are looking into the weekend.
05:10There's every possibility that that high pressure will become more widespread later in the weekend and early next week
05:17to bring perhaps another short-lived hot spell, particularly towards the southeast.
05:22But it probably won't last long because the jet stream always wanting to return to the UK shores.
05:28And that looks more likely than not for the rest of next week.
05:32We'll keep you updated, of course, right here at the Met Office.
