Met Office names exact day warm weather returns as Scotland set for 19C temperatures

April has felt unusually cold due to grey skies and rain, but the Met Office says the weather will be warming up within days.

Persistent rain and a lack of sunshine have caused conditions colder than expected for spring, explains Met Office. However, the national forecaster expects temperatures to warm up from Wednesday May 1.

On Friday May 3, the Met Office forecast shows highs up to 19C in Glasgow and parts of Perthshire whilst southeast England could reach 20C. Although the weather next week is looking warmer, Senior Met Office meteorologist Amy Bokota says it might not be the "glorious heatwave" people are hoping for ahead of the May bank holiday weekend.

April was a "month of two halves" as a warm fortnight followed by chillier weather has meant that average temperatures for April remained above normal. So far in April, the maximum temperature recorded was 21.8C in Writtle, Essex, and a low of minus 6.3C in Shap, Cumbria – with a UK-wide average of 8.4C, according to the Met Office.

Data from the forecaster shows that the UK has seen an average of 99mm of rainfall in April so far, which is 27% higher than usual for the month.

"It’s been a month of two halves where it’s been quite warm for the first half, and then quite cool up until now, and then it’s expecting to warm back up again," Ms Botka elaborated. "So on the whole, it’ll probably be on the warmer side of average."

She continued: "It’s definitely wetter than average for the UK as a whole, so there you’re going to be seeing rain and grey skies and a lot of places have been quite dull so far for the time of year."

As to why it may have felt colder than expected for springtime, despite temperatures suggesting otherwise, Ms Bokota replied: "The last couple of weeks has just been quite cooler than average.

"It’s been quite a dull month – duller than it should be on average – so there’s been less sunshine around, so that kind of impacts what people feel with the weather as well. It’s been mainly unsettled and changeable, so I think that just sort of feeds into people’s interpretation of what the weather feels like."

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