The weather during the coming week looks quite straightforward, with changeable conditions continuing. Temperatures in the north will often be close to the seasonal average, and in the south it will be on the mild side at times. That means the risk of some snow over the Scottish mountains, but elsewhere a mixture of showers, rain and drier days. By next weekend it could become very mild for a time as a long fetch south westerly flow develops across the country. If that happens there will be a very sharp temperature gradient probably just to the east of the UK for a time, and it looks like a change in the pattern across Europe could develop fairly quickly with low pressure moving into Scandinavia. That would leave the UK on the cold side of the low pressure with the gate opening up for cold arctic air to move down into Scotland and possibly further south. Would this happen in time for Christmas and deliver a festive surprise? The GFS chart below shows the -5C 850hPa (black dotted line on the plot) line still to the north and west of the UK by the start of Christmas day. By the end of the day the computer model shows it pushing south and crossing the whole of the UK. If that happened things would become very interesting! So no call from me yet on the weather prospects for Christmas day. We’ll have to wait a while longer for there to be enough confidence in how things will play out. So do the right thing and get them in the barn by next week end . wether outlook