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UK weather forecast: Britain to bask in one more day of sun before cooler temperatures bring thunderstorms and snow

Thunderstorms and snow forecast for end of week which saw winter temperature records broken twice

Chiara Giordano
Wednesday 27 February 2019 12:33 GMT
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UK weather: The latest Met Office forecast

Britain will bask in one more day of unseasonably warm sunshine before temperatures return to normal bringing thunderstorms and snow.

Highs of up to 20C are forecast for Wednesday, which will likely be the last day of the record-breaking spell of exceptionally warm and dry winter weather.

The high temperatures have been linked to a number of fires, including a huge blaze at Saddleworth Moor, in West Yorkshire,

Another large gorse fire also broke out at Arthur’s Seat, in Edinburgh, at a similar time.

East suessex's Ashdown Forest, the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh‘s Hundred Acre Wood was also hit by a wildfires. Two blazes that began within an hour of each other, burning 90 acres of land.

The fires came after Britain broke the record for the warmest winter day for a second day in a row, with the mercury hitting 21.2C in Kew Gardens, southwest London, on Tuesday.

The warm weather was expected to continue on Wednesday, with Met Office forecaster Dean Hall predicting largely “wall-to-wall sunshine across the UK” and temperatures as high as 20C in London.

“It’s going to feel pretty pleasant out there so certainly make the most of this exceptionally mild weather,” he said.

But he added: “Today is going to be the last day of any warmth and dry, settled weather.”

The temperature is expected to drop off into the evening on Wednesday.

It will turn cloudier for many, bringing rain to much of the UK, and will be quite windy at times.

The unsettled weather is expected to last throughout Thursday, with showery rain moving across parts of England and Wales.

“Some of those showers could be heavy and there could be a rumbling of thunder with that as well,” Mr Hall said.

Friday will be mostly dry and bright but the unsettled weather will return in time for the weekend, with wet and windy conditions arriving on Saturday.

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Sunday should see sunshine and heavy showers, but it will feel cooler throughout the weekend.

The wet and windy weather is predicted to continue through next week, although there will also be some drier and brighter periods.

Temperatures will turn cooler and be around normal for the start of spring, but it could turn cold enough for some snow to fall on high ground in the north.

Experts have warned climate change is heating up the whole weather system and making extremes more likely, after the UK saw new winter record temperatures set on two consecutive days this week.

The temperature of 21.C recorded in Kew Gardens in London on Tuesday beat the 20.6C measured at Trawsgoed, near Aberystwyth, just a day earlier.

The previous high of 19.7C was recorded in Greenwich, southeast London, in 1998.

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