This weekend's weather

Will the sunshine and light winds stay until Sunday? The Daily Sail meteorologist Libby Greenhalgh reveals all..

The high pressure system present last weekend and all this week will not be budging over the weekend. While the centre of the system has slowly edged over into central east Europe the UK is encompassed in a trough of the high pressure. This does divide the country slightly with Scotland and Northern Ireland experiencing stronger winds and wetter conditions while the Solent will have clear sunny skies and light winds.

The high pressure system will persist across the weekend with a slightly less wind strength on the Sunday, but no sign of Atlantic low pressure systems moving in.

Saturday will see the wind build across the morning from about 8 knots, first thing, to towards 14 knots at the most by midday. The wind direction will slowly veer across the early hours of the morning to settle in the east for the day. The wind strength should decrease slightly across the afternoon and by 1800 will be around 6 knots.

Sunday will see the wind direction veer towards the east southeast at around 10 knots. The wind strength will ease across the morning from 10 knots to between 6-8 knots and veer further to the southeast by midday. The wind will be no stronger than 14 knots in regions where the topography is funnelling the wind and on average 6-8 knots.
In the mid to late afternoon a frontal trough can be seen pushing up from the South which will bring cloud and a shift in the wind direction to the south. The progress of this shallow front could be key to the possible wind strategy of the second race. To watch the position of the trough go to www.westwind.ch on Sunday morning and click on UKMO Brack under Forecast models 0-10d and then on 0.0. On the attached synoptic chart the frontal trough can be identified by the patch of rain over central Spain.

The key to the racing will be similar to that of last weekend where regions of convergence could be clearly identified across the Southampton Water course areas along the eastern coast. In the Solent wind bends were identified around Calshot and stronger winds in the west. The wind direction will be further east to that of last Sunday providing shifty conditions. The possibility of a true sea breeze is minimal on Sunday as the gradient breeze direction is not favourable, however there is a chance of thermal enhancement as the land heats up in the sunny conditions. This could strengthen the wind by 2-5 knots and pull the direction more southerly.