There looks to be no let up of the cold, damp weekend washout that is continuing the miserable start of spring in the UK.
The thermometer is unlikely to rise any higher than 11C anywhere in the country today or tomorrow, as a several hundred mile soggy front will work its way up from the South today into Sunday.
It is a forecast which is unlikely to bring cheer to those who have splashed their way through the disappointing puddle of a month that has been April. Anyone desperate to slip on a pair of shorts or sun hat for the first time this year will have to wait a fair while longer, despite May beginning next week.
Last night the mercury dipped to a shiver-inducing, unseasonable -6.3C in the Lake District. While the weather was markedly warmer in the South where a balmy 14.7C was reached at Heathrow Airport in West London, today and tomorrow things are more uniformly brisk across the UK.
Met Office weather maps show the mercury hovering around 10C in Cardiff, Manchester, Belfast, Glasgow and Exeter today and tomorrow, with slightly lower highs in London.
A fair dumping of rain is unlikely to make things feel any more cheerful. The Met Office predicts that up to 8mm of rain could fall every hour in areas of southern England today as a sizeable weather front arrives this afternoon. An area of low pressure from the European Continent may also bring spells of thunder and lightning. The rain will spread out from the southern coast come Saturday evening and work its way up the country throughout the night. By late tomorrow morning the rainy front will have wheeled round to cover just the east coast.
In terms of the weather to come as summer nears, there is good and bad news. The good news is that sunshine is due to finally arrive. Sun-seekers in parts of the country will be able bask in heat predicted to reach the mid 20s as a plume of hot air moves toward the UK during the second week of May. The bad news is that not everywhere will be treated to the cockle-warming temperatures.
Weather maps show where the warmth is likely to be over the four day period at the start of next month. WXCharts forecast a sustained period of sunny weather between May 3 and May 6, but it shows a north-south divide with those in southern England and Wales expecting warmer temperatures than those in Northern Ireland, Scotland and northern England.
The Met Office's long-range forecast up until May 9 hints of temperature going "upwards" and it reads: "The period is likely to start with areas of organised rain and/or showers in the west, and largely dry conditions in the east although a scattering of showers developing by day.