It’s warming up... get set for 20C

BRITONS could be set to soak up temperatures in the 20Cs in the coming days, before rain and thundery showers take over.

If you have not had your first barbecue of the year yet, then today may be the time to change this amid the widespread warm sunshine.

Aidan Mcgivern, of the Met Office, suggests today could see “16-19C widely – with 24C the possible high that would make it the warmest day of the year so far”.

He also said “that warm air as it arrives is likely to spark a few heavy showers”.

He said: “By Saturday evening, those showers would be making an appearance into the south west, spreading quite widely into southern parts of England and south Wales.

“In some places, it would just be a spell of rain but for central and southern England and the south coast there is the risk of some heavy downpours, thunderstorms and frequent lightning.”

This all comes after a cool start to the day today which is followed by temperature rises and spells of rain that may hit the far north west of Scotland.

It is looking like “a fine afternoon”, according to Mr Mcgivern – who described the prospect of “sunshine up and down” from the north of Scotland to the south of England, with just some patchy cloud in the north and west.

The Met Office says that warm air originally from North Africa will bring above average temperatures for May to most places in the UK over the next week, but it will be broken up with potentially heavy or thundery showers.

Met Office spokesman Richard Miles said

“at the moment Tuesday looks like being the warmest day of the week”.