It's official! Summer is set to be hot

From Prima

The UK could bask in hotter-than-average weather this summer but Met Office forecasters have warned that Britons shouldn’t expect a three-month heatwave, as some reports have suggested.

Weather forecasters say long-range weather systems are showing an increase in the chance of high pressure patterns, which would bring 'above-average temperatures' and 'drier-than-average conditions' this summer.

Despite the positive prediction for June, July and August, the Met Office says that below-average temperatures 'remain a realistic possibility' even though they are 'less likely'. It adds that Britons can expect, on balance, below-average rainfall.

Jeff Knight, manager of modelling of climate variability at the Met Office, says: 'Our long term outlook for the summer suggests a greater chance that temperatures will be above average, than below average.

'However, our outlook certainly doesn’t imply a three-month heatwave. As always with our climate there are likely to be large day-to-day and week-to-week variations the period.

'This is an outlook for the general themes over the summer and does not give detailed guidance on events like heatwaves.'

The long-range outlook was released as a risk assessment to allow the government to plan for any potential weather hazards. It used evidence from global weather observations and computer forecast systems to estimate the chances of different types of weather over the summer months.

Meanwhile, the last days of spring are set to be unsettled for much of the UK as a mixture of cloudy weather and sunny spells are predicted this week, along with the odd shower and windy conditions.

The Met Office says there will be a return to drier, more settled weather by the end of June.

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