UK temperatures set to hit 28C this week as Met Office predicts hottest day of the year

The Met Office says temperatures will continue to rise through the early part of the week

People could be basking in scorching temperatures this week with what it set to be the hottest day of the year so far. According to the Met Office temperatures are set to hit 28C.

The UK could see temperatures reaching 24C or 25C on Monday. This will then rise until it peaks on Wednesday or Thursday when it could reach 28C.

There is even a small chance this could be higher with the potential of it hitting 29C, the forecaster said. It will be accompanied by widespread sunshine, with only the northern parts of Scotland expected to see some rain.

The nighttime temperatures will drop down to at least low teens. Met Office meteorologist Craig Snell said. this means “we shouldn’t suffer too much with warm nights”.

He added: “We’re certainly on track to see the warmest spell of the year so far. The warm trend has already started now across southern areas.

“At the moment we’ve got up to 21.5C in central London and Hull. As we go through the next few days we will see the warm spell continue.”

The current hottest day was just a week ago on April 24 when it hit 24C. Monday is likely to be the hottest day of the year so far with each day then potentially breaking the record again until the peak, Mr Snell said.

He added: “There will be plenty of sunshine around, the very north of Scotland at times will see some spells of rain, especially at the beginning of the week, but it’s going to be limited to the far north of Scotland. For a lot of the UK it’s going to be largely sunny.”

Temperatures will be “markedly higher” than what they should be for this time of year. Usually at the end of April it is about 12C in the north and 16C in the south.

This means some areas could be in excess of 10C higher than the average. Records for April and May are unlikely to be broken as the record for April stands at 29.4C, and May’s record is 32.8C.

But some local records at stations could be broken, the forecaster added. It will be close to what the Met Office considers a heatwave in some areas, but there is not likely to be a heatwave widely, Mr Snell said.

According to the Met Office, the definition of a heatwave is three consecutive days of temperatures exceeding the “heatwave threshold”, which varies across the country. The threshold is 25C for most of the UK, with slightly higher numbers for the south and east, and rising to 28C in London.

On Friday temperatures will start to drop towards the average for the time of year. They will fall to the high teens in the south and mid teens in the north, Mr Snell said.