A stormy night is in prospect

Following Oldham's hottest day of the year yesterday (Thursday), with temperatures recorded at 28.4°C in Chadderton, the weekend looks set to be a stormy one.

Today won’t be as hot, but it will still be humid with a maximum temperature of 25 degrees.

The sunny and cloudy skies of the day are predicted to break from around 9pm with some heavy downpours and a risk of torrential thunderstorms, especially over the Pennines and the east of the region.

This is caused by frontal systems arriving later in the day and making the air unstable, but will not affect everyone.

Let's hope that the showers, which could last into the first part of the night, don't obscure tonight's lunar eclipse.

The blood moon will be the longest of the century, lasting one hour and 43 minutes.

As the moon ducks into the earth's shadow, it will be at its farthest point away from Earth on its elliptical orbit, causing it to appear smaller and dimmer than usual.

The view of this celestial event from Oldham will occur from 9pm looking in a south-easterly direction.

Its reddish appearance is the result of the earth obscuring sunlight hitting the moon, illuminating it only with the red light that is not scattered as light is refracted through Earth's atmosphere.

From then, the weekend outlook appears fresher for all.

Any early showers on Saturday will clear into a fresher day, with plenty of sunny spells.

There is just the chance that an afternoon shower might develop over the hills.

Sunday will bring a bright start, but cloud looks likely to increase from the southwest bringing a risk of some showers or spells of patchy rain.

Both weekend days should feature temperatures of around 21 degrees.

A few showers are forecast early next week, then the humid, hot and cloudy weather looks set to return yet again towards the end of the week.

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