Sharp frosts and lovely sunny skies beckon, but less colder air and rain will return soon

We had our first early taste of winter this week.

It’s autumn still of course, but we’ve had some frost and hill-snow and further frosty nights await.

Will milder air return, asks Oldham weather expert Jon Baylis?

Yes, less cold into the weekend and eventually rain will be back but will it last?

Here's Jon's latest in-depth forecast:

Today (Thursday): A sharp frost to start and a sharp frost to end.

But during the day it’ll be a cracker with plenty of sunshine and blue skies.

It’ll be quite breezy for a few hours and this will really take the edge off the temperature making it feel sub-zero.

Max 4°C Min -5°C Max Gusts 20mph.

Friday: Another dry and decent day with plenty of sunny spells after a harsh frost.

The frost is likely to persist in the shade all day.

However, there is change on the way and cloud will arrive and thicken from the west later in the day.

Overnight, milder air will slowly filter in and winds will pickup slightly and patchy rain will arrive which might fall initially as sleet and snow on the tops, but it will not last long.

No frost overnight.

Max 3°C Min 1°C.

Saturday: Cloudy with patchy rain which should become heavier later in the day as winds increase and become quite gusty into the evening.

Less cold but still feeling particularly chilly due to the conditions.

Max 9°C Min 5°C Max Gusts 25mph.

Sunday: After the sunshine of Thursday and Friday, it’s a disappointing weekend overall, with Sunday being similar to Saturday, plenty of cloud about and some rain at times.

Damp and chilly but winds should be slightly lighter.

Max 8°C Min 5°C.

Outlook: The outlook does not include much sunshine by the looks of it.

Temperatures hovering around average with mostly cloudy conditions and rain at times.

Due to the cloud cover frosts overnight look limited.

As we head into December, there’s a lot of excitement about colder conditions, but this far out is impossible to say.

This time next week I could well have more of an idea of when the next cold snap is coming.

Follow @ChadWeather on X and Bluesky for the latest forecasts and warnings.

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