Britain shivers in an Arctic blast - and Bank Holiday's set to be a washout
After enjoying a balmy couple of weeks that saw the hottest days of the year, Britain has this week been left shivering in a cold Arctic blast.
Some parts of the country have even seen a return of snow, and temperatures dropped 10C since mid-April.
And, unfortunately, while the Bank Holiday weekend may not be quite as cold as this week, weather forecasters are warning it could be a washout.
Leon Brown, meteorologist at The Weather Channel UK, told Aol Travel: "There's a large pool of cold Arctic air over NW Europe and the UK this week.
"Less cold maritime Atlantic air will try to push this back northward this weekend, but at the same time bring wet weather.
"It was the coldest 27 April on record this morning with -8C at Katesbridge in N.Ireland, but also down to -6.8C at Shap in Cumbria and even -5.8C in Sennybridge, S.Wales.
"Night temperatures will be not be quite as low for the two nights, but there will still be air frosts across northern Britain and ground frosts in the south.
"Friday morning will see another widespread frost again and temperatures below -5C in parts of the north. The daily record for 1 May is -8.9C set at Braemar, Scotland in 1927.
"It will be wetter in all areas on Wednesday as a band of showery rain moves eastwards, and again there will be snow over the higher Pennines and Scottish Mountains.
"There will be sunshine and showers for most areas on Thursday followed by a cold and clear night with a widespread frost.
"There's some uncertainty for the south on Friday with a risk of some rain for a time, but the rest of the UK will be bright with isolated showers.
"This weekend it looks like Saturday will start cold and sunny with an early frost, then rain threatens to move up across the south for Sunday and Monday.
"The north may be drier and stay quite cool, although there is a risk the rain could extend north too with unsettled weather nationwide."
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