50mph gusts threaten risk of falling branches with windy weather set to blow through Aylesbury Vale

After lovely weather for much of the long Easter weekend in Aylesbury Vale, things took a turn for the worse during Sunday night.

High pressure centred over Norway had dominated the scene from Good Friday through to Easter Day, bringing dry and bright weather with long spells of sunshine in the Vale. It felt pleasantly warm too by the afternoons with temperatures reaching the mid-teens Celsius after cold starts with some frost and fog in places.

However, a band of rain spread eastwards across the Vale later on Sunday night, this clearing to sunshine and blustery showers by lunchtime on Monday. This, though, was only the start of what is a very unsettled week.

A band of heavy rain had moved in by the evening yesterday (Tuesday) associated with a deepening Atlantic low pressure system. This brought one spell of strong winds during the first half of Tuesday night with gusts in excess of 40mph.

Although winds eased later in the night, this same low pressure system will allow south-westerly winds to strengthen further during today (Wednesday) with gusts potentially reaching 50-55mph across Bucks.

Although winds of this strength are common in winter, it is quite unusual for winds of this magnitude to occur in the middle of spring.

With spring vegetation growth well under way, winds of this strength will have higher impacts than they would in winter, with a greater risk of branches and even full trees coming down. So be very careful if out and about today!

Along with the strong winds today, there will be frequent showers which may merge into longer spells of rain. Further showers are likely tomorrow with the threat of more persistent rain on Friday.

However, an area of high pressure in continental Europe may ridge far enough into the south-east to bring a drier weekend. Early indications suggest dry and increasingly mild weather is possible next week.