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The pattern of weather that is now establishing itself, dominated by westerly winds, is common across the UK in winter.

Vigorous depressions are likely to develop in the coming days, and the strength of the wind is likely to catch the headlines.

This weekend looks particularly stormy, with widespread gales likely from North Wales northwards tomorrow - with gusts as high as 65mph as far south as the North Midlands, around 70mph across the more exposed parts of Yorkshire, and possibly approaching 80mph in Northeast of England and East Scotland later.

Looking into next week, and early December looks set to stay unsettled, and turn generally colder, with the first snow of the season possible in places, mainly over northern hills.

But almost a year to the day since the beginning of last year's extreme cold, there seems little chance that next month will see a repeat of the weather patterns that led to the coldest December since 1890 (on the Central England Temperature measure), despite numerous headlines in the tabloid press in the last few months.

It is turning out to be a remarkable November, with mean temperatures way above what would normally be expected at this time of the year.

If temperatures were to remain at these elevated levels then it would become the mildest November ever recorded on the Central England Temperature (CET) measure, which dates back 350 years.

These very mild conditions come off the back of what was a very mild October, where new records were set quite widely across the country.

This flies in the face of stories in the press earlier this autumn, originating from several small independent weather forecasting companies, which talked of snow and ice as early as October https://tiny.cc/8hmlu and Siberian weather by mid-November https://tiny.cc/nbzb3

This illustrates graphically the danger of reading too much into long range forecasts, which remain extremely difficult to get right.

There are definite signs that the current stationary, or blocked, weather pattern, which has fed mild air from the south for virtually the whole of November, is about to give way to a more traditional weather pattern as we head towards the end of November, and into December.

A mobile westerly weather pattern should become established through next week. This means stronger winds, and some rain, heaviest in the north and west, with lower totals in the south and east.

An example of what lies on store can be seen on the chart from the GFS American model, for Friday 25th November.

Towards the end of November, and into December, there is a trend in some models for winds to switch to the Northwest.

This would bring somewhat colder temperatures, with some precipitation falling as snow across northern parts of the UK, more especially over hills - but this is perfectly normal for the time of the year.

Finally I though it was worth highlighting the forecast that was issued by Weather Action a few weeks ago.

They have recently had some notable successes: last winter's severe weather (although February was a notable exception in being much milder than they expected); they correctly highlighted that this summer would be unsettled; and they also forecast a generally mild autumn some months ago.

So it is with interest that Weather Action have forecast that from Nov 27th to Dec 28th the UK and Ireland will be affected by exceptionally cold weather, with the potential for some 'huge snowfalls' because of solar considerations.

The main computer models only forecast as far as the first week in December, and as it stands at the moment, although some are trending colder later in the period, none are signalling anything as dramatic as Weather Action is suggesting.

It will be very interesting to see who comes out on top.

The recent proposal by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to halve the Feed in Tariff (FIT) available for solar installations registered after the middle of next month has sent shock waves through the industry.

Already two energy giants, British Gas and EON, have stopped new applications for their 'rent a roof' schemes, whereby homeowners can have panels fitted for free, using the electricity generated, but with the energy companies taking the subsidy.

For consumers wanting to invest in solar panels themselves, it means that the time it will take to pay for a typical solar system will rise from the current 8-10 years, to 15-20 years.

And it's this doubling of the time taken for the initial investment to pay for itself which has led to suggestions from industry insiders that this new, fast growing green industry, could collapse.

So why this drastic 50% cut in the Feed in Tariff?

The government says that there are two reasons.

Firstly, the cost of solar panels have fallen sharply.

18 months ago, a 3KW system would have cost around £14,000, but today, the average cost is closer to £10,000.

In that time the subsidy has remained the same, meaning that the return has risen sharply to around 10%, tax free, index linked to RPI inflation. The new subsidy will effectively halve the rate of return to 5%.

Secondly the government is under pressure from consumers, complaining of ever increasing energy bills.

Because the subsidy itself isn't coming from the government. It's paid by each and every one of us on our electricity bills, and cutting the subsidy is a way of lowering energy bills.

More than 100,000 households have had solar panels fitted since April 2010 - at an estimated annual cost to the consumer of just £6 a year.

But by 2015, if the rate of take-up remains the same, the cost would increase to around £24 a year.

And critics of the solar industry claim that this subsidy is just too high, and generating electricity in this way is very expensive.

They also claim that some companies have been profiteering, and not passing on to consumers the full fall in the cost of solar panels being produced, mainly in China.

But others say that not only is solar power a small but vital part of reducing the UK's carbon footprint, it is one of the few expanding sectors of the economy, with thousands of people now employed in this green sector.

Industry insiders say that many of these new jobs are now likely to be at serious risk as people shy away of investing in a scheme that could take up to 20 years to pay for itself.

The latest global temperature anomaly for October has been released and according to the UAH measure it's fallen sharply to +0.114C above the running 30 year mean, shown on the graph below.

Both hemispheres and the tropics experienced falls in the last month, as the cooling influence of La Nina in the Pacific started to have an impact on global temperatures.

Further falls are likely in the coming months.

November has started where October left off, with mild temperatures expected over the next few days as southerly winds continue.

Provisional figures show October has been the 8th warmest since 1910 across the UK.

The month will be remembered for the heat during the first weekend, when Yorkshire's record, held by Whitby for over 100 years, fell to Bramham, in West Yorkshire, where 28.7C was recorded on the 1st.

The following day, Lincolnshire established a new record, with 29.3C recorded at Coningsby. Nationally, Gravesend also set a new UK record with 29.9C.

The warmth across the UK for October can be seen very nicely on the temperature map below.

Parts of Lincolnshire though had less rainfall than normal, with Coningsby recording 41mm, compared with the average of 51mm.

With the county still officially in drought, a dry winter could mean real problems next year.