Saltcoats (Beach) (North Ayrshire) weather

Headline:

Windy with showers on Sunday.

Today:

Cold and windy with gale to severe gale force west winds turning north to northwest. Scattered showers, these merging into longer periods of rain in the northeast, snow on the hills. Maximum temperature 6 °C.

Tonight:

The gale to severe gale northwest wind will ease and periods of rain, snow on the hills northeast, clears to scattered showers, wintry high ground before becoming dry towards morning. Minimum temperature 1 °C.

Monday:

Mainly dry with sunny spells at first. Cloud and rain spreads east from mid-morning becoming persistent over the hills later. Maximum temperature 8 °C.

Outlook for Tuesday to Thursday:

Milder from Tuesday, patchy rain in south otherwise cloudy with rain, persistent at times across Argyll into Thursday.

The start of this period will be characterised by mild, cloudy conditions for most, with some drizzle in places, and more persistent rain across northwest Scotland. Many other areas are predominantly dry but rather cloudy, with the best cloud breaks likely to be found across parts of eastern Scotland and Northeastern England. Around the turn of the year, it looks more probable that colder, more showery conditions will likely make at least some ingress into northern and perhaps central areas, bringing a risk of some impacts from ice, sleet and snow. Widely mild at first, perhaps exceptionally so in some places, 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.