Kirkwall Airport (Orkney Islands) weather

Headline:

Winds easing. Turning milder on Monday with rain later.

This Evening and Tonight:

The gale to severe gale northwest wind in the evening eases fresh to strong overnight. Clear spells and scattered showers in the evening, showers become isolated later. Minimum temperature 2 °C.

Monday:

A dry start to the morning with sunny spells. Cloud and rain spread east across Orkney in the morning and Shetland from late afternoon. Maximum temperature 7 °C.

Outlook for Tuesday to Thursday:

A very mild Christmas period, mainly cloudy with rain at times, occasionally persistent and heavy Wednesday, becoming drier and cooler Shetland 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 fairly low, but overall, slowly-evolving weather patterns are more favoured. Continuing from the previous period, there remains a slightly reduced chance compared with normal of wet and windy spells, with 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.