Belfast (County Antrim) weather

Headline:

Windy with showers on Sunday.

This Evening and Tonight:

West to northwest gale force winds, severe along the north coast, will continue overnight. Frequent showers persist, merging into longer periods of rain at times and turning wintry. Minimum temperature 1 °C.

Sunday:

Gale, coastal severe gale, northwest winds and showers ease later. Showers fall as snow over the hills at first. Maximum temperature 7 °C.

Outlook for Monday to Wednesday:

The wind will ease as cloud and rain spread east Monday morning. Tuesday breezy with rain mainly in the west, spreading east Wednesday.

Boxing Day weather will be characterised by mild, cloudy conditions for most, with bits of drizzle in places and perhaps some more persistent rain in northwest Scotland. This sets the scene for the next few days too, with an area of high pressure becoming established across much of the UK, probably centred over or just to the south of England. The highest chance of rain and strong winds will be in northwest Scotland, with many other areas predominantly dry but rather cloudy, although more settled conditions may well extend to the northwest at times too. Widely mild at first, perhaps exceptionally so in some places early on, but temperatures probably return to nearer normal by early January. Throughout, any clearer spells overnight may lead to localised frost and fog.

Confidence in this period is low, but overall slowly-evolving weather patterns are more favoured. Overall, there is a slightly reduced chance compared with normal of wet and windy spells, with instead a slightly greater potential for colder episodes during the first half of January. While drier than average conditions are likely for many areas, some precipitation is still expected, which could lead to wintry hazards at times. Temperatures are likely to be close to or a little above normal overall, but this could be made up of a mix of milder and colder interludes.