Britain will bask in sunshine and warm temperatures this week as the country looks set to see the hottest day of the year so far.
As the UK experiences its first taste of spring, just weeks after snow swept across many areas, the mercury could rise to up to 10C above the average for April, the Met Office has said.
Meteorologist Alex Burkill said the weather will be “turning warmer for a little time” as hotter air is dragged up from the south, causing temperatures to rise as high as 25C by Thursday.
With cloud and rain poised to affect Wales, northern and western England, Scotland and Northern Ireland over Monday night and into Tuesday, he warned it could be “quite windy in the west”.
Burkill said the best of sunshine and warmth on Tuesday will be in the South East, where temperatures between 18-19C could be recorded.
“It is not out of the question that we can get 20C (68F) tomorrow – which I believe would make it the warmest day of the year so far,” he said.
Nonetheless, a yellow severe weather warning has been issued on Tuesday for South West Scotland and Strathclyde. The Met Office warns heavy rain is expected between 2-11am, with flooding of homes and businesses “likely”. Up to 50mm of rain is possible across the high ground of Dumfries and Galloway.
By Wednesday it will be mostly dry and rather sunny for most places, though further rain will affect Northern Ireland, Scotland and perhaps some parts of northern England too.
Burkill added: “But for many central and eastern parts of the UK it is going to be a dry and very sunny day and, with that, temperatures creeping up as well.”
The rest of the week will also get warmer with highs of up to 22C possible on Wednesday.
“Thursday is probably going to be the warmest day – we could get highs of 24C or 25C (in the South East),” he said.
“Apart from a bit of showery rain across parts of Scotland perhaps, Thursday is looking like a dry and sunny day … with temperatures quite widely getting above 20C.”
With average maximum temperatures for April across the UK around 11.5C and around 13C for southern England, Burkill said it will be a “good 10C above average”.
Thursday’s warm blast will see parts of the country be hotter than some European destinations, including Malaga in Spain at 21C and Athens in Greece at 23C.
Burkill said it is “not especially” unusual to see such temperatures, adding: “Quite often we would have already gone above 20C by this time in the year.
“It is quite normal for spring to be like this and to bring some colder spells and some temperatures like this.”
He revealed that the warm and sunny weather looks set to continue into the weekend, but that it may be a little cooler, and said there could be some rain pushing in from the west by Sunday.