Britain set for sizzling Easter weekend

Ag PA

LONDON: Britain will be bathed in sunshine over the Bank Holiday weekend with temperatures reaching potentially record levels for Easter.

The Met Office said most of the UK will see clear skies and warm temperatures for the Easter weekend, with highs of up to 27C on Easter Monday. While it said it is unlikely the country will have its hottest April or Easter, there could be record temperatures on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.

The highest recorded temperature over an Easter weekend was 29.4C, taken at Camden Square in London on Easter Saturday in 1949, the Met Office said. Met Office meteorologist Sophie Yeomans said it was unlikely the country would have higher temperatures than this.

She added: “It won’t be one of the hottest temperatures we have had in April, the only thing it is going to break is some of the records for Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.” The warmest temperature recorded on an Easter Friday was 26.9C at St James’s Park in London in 2011, with the mercury reaching 25.3C on Easter Sunday and 24C on Easter Monday that year. Yeomans said with highs of 25C expected on Friday it was more likely the country will have record temperatures on Sunday and Monday. She added: “The highs today are probably 25C but I think there’s an outside chance of beating that. The ones we are likely to beat are the ones for Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Into Sunday probably 25C again, we may get a 26C somewhere across the UK and for Monday probably up a degree or two again, 26C or 27C for Easter Monday.”

Not everywhere will see blue skies, with north-west Scotland and the Northern Isles expected to have some clouds and rain on Saturday.