UK to see warm midweek but a weekend washout on the way

The UK is set to enjoy more warm weather this week but a weekend washout is on the horizon, the Met Office warned.

Temperatures are expected to reach highs of 17C in the south and northeast of England, on Tuesday and Wednesday with temperatures “scratching into” 18C in London.

But the weekend will see more unsettled conditions develop and rain across all parts of the country.

Oli Claydon, a forecaster at the Met Office, said: “We will see increasing sunny spells across the south, central and northern parts of England and Wales.

“There will be highs of 16C and 17C in the early part of this week anywhere the sun shines.

“There’s a chance of maybe scratching into 18C in the southeast and London.

“Wednesday will be largely settled.

“There will be a good deal of cloud around to start the day but that will break up and lift and we will see some sunny spells developing up through the afternoon.”

He added: “The real sort of change in weather really starts on Friday where we see more in the way of unsettled weather, with rain moving across all parts of the UK and also some quite breezy conditions with low pressure.

“The weekend is looking to remain with rain in the forecast.

“There could be sunny spells at times through the weekend but there will be large amounts of cloud around and outbreaks of rain as well.”

Mother’s Day on Sunday is expected to see showers as Mr Claydon added that “certainly, the first half of the weekend will be more settled than the second”.

Temperatures will also cool at the end of the week.

Mr Claydon said: “Temperatures go a notch down through Thursday and into Friday as we get that increasing cloud so less influence of the sunshine breaking through bringing those temperatures up.”

These temperatures are “pretty normal for this part of March as we’re moving well into spring now”.

This comes after the UK saw its warmest spring equinox day since 1972 last week as temperatures reached 21C in parts of the country.