Warmer spring-like weather forecast in UK after chilly April

Chilly April is on its way out with the coming days set to usher in warmer temperatures more akin to spring, according to the Met Office.

The lack of sunshine, grey skies and persistent rain have contributed to it feeling unusually cold as April comes to a close.

But forecasters expect that to change from Wednesday, with temperatures in south-east England in the mid to high teens and possibly nudging 20C and beyond later in the week in some southern areas.

The Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “It wouldn’t be harder to be warmer, compared to what it has been like recently. Temperatures have been below average for the last couple of weeks across most of the UK and particularly chilly for the last few days.

“So yes, it is turning warmer. But it’s not going to be too exceptional for early May. Temperatures will be recovering to close to average values by Tuesday and Wednesday, possibly a little bit above average by the end of the week so we could see highs locally up to low 20s. But it won’t be for everyone.

“We are not going to see blue skies and wall-to-wall sunshine. There will be some sunshine, but there will also be quite a lot of cloud and some showery rain at times this week.

“Compared to last week it will be much warmer and a bit drier too, but quite mixed weather day to day and nothing particularly warm for the time of year.”

The highest temperatures are most likely to be across central and western England, and perhaps south Wales. But there will be regional variations. “On the coast, for example Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, it could just be 12C or 13C, whereas in London it could be 19C or 20C. So there will be big regional variances. Possibly 22C to 23C is the absolute maximum towards Friday, but that would require everything to come together, lots of sunshine, light winds etc,” Morgan said.

If everything did come together, it is possible areas including northern Scotland could see “an isolated 20C”, he added. “But probably the highest temperatures will be in central and southern England and parts of south Wales.”

April has been a “month of two halves” with a warmer first fortnight followed by chillier second fortnight. There has been an average of 99mm of rainfall in April so far, which is 27% higher than usual for the month.

And while it would be warmer going into May, it would be “nothing like a heatwave or anything like that”, said Morgan.

“Having said that, as you go towards the first bank holiday weekend, it does look mostly fine for a large part of the UK, with high pressure dominating, so mostly dry and temperatures fairly reasonable for the time of year of between 18C to 21C for lots of the UK.”