Friday was the hottest day of the year so far with 23.7C registered in Otterbourne, Hampshire and the Met Office understands it will remain warm throughout the weekend
Prepare your barbecues – because this weekend is set to be a scorcher.
The Met Office says it will be hot and dry both today and tomorrow, though Saturday will be warmer. Highs of 21C are expected later today, and it will be particularly warm across Southwest England. It will be 20C across the majority of the country, including western areas.
But it won’t be as warm as the 23.7C recorded on Friday – the hottest day of the year so far. The peak was registered by the Met Office in Otterbourne, Hampshire, which is approximately 15 miles from the coast.
And it is expected beaches across the south coast, including at Brighton, Bournemouth, Weymouth and Lyme Regis, will be busy throughout the weekend as the south of the country is anticipated the warmest. Sunday will be pleasant and dry, though Saturday is thought to be the warmest day of the weekend.
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Becky Mitchell, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “Overall, we are in for very warm weather across much of the UK, with plenty of sunshine heading into the weekend.
“We will hang on to a good deal of sunshine and dry weather across the whole of the UK. Southern England and South Wales will still be rather warm, but with quite a strong wind.
“Elsewhere, we’ve got some slightly cooler air pushing in from the North East, so temperatures will come down by quite a few degrees for the rest of the country, but it will still feel pleasant in the sunshine. Heading into Sunday again, largely fine, dry and sunny across the whole of the UK.”
Shoppers have dashed to buy barbecues in anticipation of the glorious weather, supermarkets say. Tesco alone predicts weekend sales of one million packs of sausages, nearly one million packs of barbecue rolls, and 1.7 million packs of ice cream.
The 21C will be a return to the brief warm spell the UK enjoyed last month, when the mercury peaked at 21.3C in Northolt, west London. However, this period did not last long as, after a few days, temperatures tumbled again. This pattern is feared again by some forecasters as a low band of pressure looms over the Atlantic. This will cause temperatures to fall again by the middle of April, so much so there is potential for wintry showers as far south as Staffordshire.
The change will see the mercury fall to below freezing – coldest across Lancashire, Scottish Highlands, and County Antrim – and a bitter wind arrive. This cold snap may last for several days but forecasters hope temperatures will again pick up over Easter.