Sun springs a scorchio surprise to beat Costas

IT IS an unusually late Easter this year and our weather may have peaked a week early. So the balmy temperatures that we all hanker after over the lazy, long festive weekend are happening today rather than next Sunday.

And it is going to be a springtime scorchio, with central, southern and eastern England outdoing even the Costa del Sol. London and the southeast are set to top 73.4F (23C), with Norwich at 66F (19C) and Birmingham 64F (18C). The cause is a plume of warm air heading up on a southerly breeze from Europe.

Some places, however, will miss out, with cloud and even some rain in the far northwest. Stornoway is down at 50F (10C) and these gloomier conditions will creep across much of Scotland and on into Northern Ireland and the west coast of Wales.

If you are lucky enough to be in the hot spots, don’t under-estimate the spring sun. UV levels will hit levels usually expected in August.

But this scorchio will be short-lived. The weather front that has brought clouds to the north and west will head southwards as the working week begins. Temperatures could drop by up to 9C from Sunday to Monday.

And as the week progresses, these cooler, cloudy conditions will persist, though there will be very little rain.

The best of the sunshine should be in the south west, but don’t set the alarm hoping to glimpse another “sun pillar” like the one spotted anywhere from Derby to Dorset last Thursday. The rising sun’s reflection on falling ice crystals in thin, high-level clouds can create an effect that looks as if a comet is dropping out of the sky. But – like a balmy Easter weekend – it is a rare phenomenon.