Wet Weather Remains Western Europe

By Eric Leister, Meteorologist

February 14,2015; 10:50PM,EST

 

 

A large dome of high pressure was positioned over northern Europe much of last week, blocking the arrival of storms from the Atlantic.
This high pressure shifted eastward over the weekend across Scandinavia, opening the door for the first of a pair of storms to move into the region. The first storm brought wet weather back to areas from Ireland and the United Kingdom to France and Spain to end the last week.
A second in the pair of disturbances will bring another round of rain to start the new week.
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The first storm center will continue to sink to the south into the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday, continuing to bring rain from northern Italy to southern France and into Spain. Heavy snow will fall in the western Alps where over 30 cm (12 inches) can pile up in the highest terrain.
However, by Tuesday, many areas from southern France to southern Spain will dry out as this disturbance moves over Italy.
Drier air will remain across the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sunday limiting any rainfall to showers to western Ireland and Scotland later in the day. This will be in advance of the next system that will wet the region to start the new week.

By Monday, showers will once again overspread the British Isles, along with western France and northern Spain. This should be a relatively quick-hitting system in the United Kingdom as high pressure is expected to bring dry weather across Wales and England once again by Tuesday.
While wet weather returns to much of western and southern Europe, the high pressure in northern Europe will drift south and east, eventually being centered in Ukraine on Tuesday. This will foster dry weather from much of Germany and Austria eastward.
Along with this dry weather, sunshine will prevail much of the time through the weekend in locations such as Berlin, Germany, and Warsaw, Poland. However, some clouds will linger across the Baltic States and into Ukraine and western Russia.
The clouds will occasionally be accompanied by drizzle and fog. That is especially true in the late-night and morning hours and could cause travel disruptions (both on the ground and in the air) by reducing visibility.
Another danger will arise when temperatures are below freezing and cause the drizzle or any dense fog to turn untreated surfaces slippery.
Contributions by Meteorologist Adam Douty