UK weather forecast: Wind and rain to sweep across country this weekend, Met Office warns

Blustery conditions expected as heavy showers arrive across Northern Ireland and Scotland

Britain is set to experience a wet and windy weekend with rain forecast to sweep across the UK.

Heavy downpours are expected in Northern Ireland and western Scotland later on Friday, the Met Office said, with conditions in the north likely to be windy. Other parts of the UK will be mainly dry but cloudy, although some warm sunny spells are expected.

Rain will move southwards on Friday evening, bringing light and patchy showers to the south west.

Met Office spokesman Richard Miles said the weekend’s weather would be “relatively mild”, with temperatures expected to remain around 9C to 11C.

He told The Independent: “For the next few days it’s fairly settled.

“On Friday, there will be a band of rain moving south east from the northwest, but that will run out of steam by the time it gets to central and northern England.

“Following that it will be cooler and clearer skies in the north of the UK.

“On Saturday there will be some patchy light rain in the south, slowly clearing. Most other places will be dry with some hazy sunshine.

“The furthest southern counties of England might hold on to the rain showers for much of the day but it will be normal to slightly chilly in the north.”

The forecast comes after the UK was hit by heavy downpours last weekend, with a month’s worth of rain falling in some areas.

The Environment Agency issued 18 flood warnings and 27 lower-risk flood alerts, mostly in Yorkshire and the Midlands, where fire engines pumped flood water away to protect homes.