Weather Wise

The dense cloud over most of the country has been threatening heavy rain - and occasionally delivering it - for days. But, particularly in the south, it could be worse by the end of the week.

When a depression moves across Britain from the Atlantic, the type of weather it brings to any individual location depends very much on the path it takes. Over the past few weeks we have seen - and shall continue to see - a queue of low pressure areas across the Atlantic, all waiting to bring rain to our shores.

The south of the country - except for the extreme south-west - has tended to avoid the worst of the weather so far because of southerly and south- westerly winds carrying the rain in a north-easterly direction.

If you have been following the progress of Low H and Low I over the past few days, you will have noticed that the first seemed to be heading straight for us, but now seems to be heading off to the north - which is good news for south-west England, but wet for Ireland. Low I, however, is still on course, which is why the forecast for later this week is for more rain in the south-east. On the brighter side, these cloudy conditions do keep us warm at this time of year, so, despite the general feeling that it's a typical wet November, we can gain some consolation from the fact that it's warmer than usual.