Met Office verdict on UK cold snap and when it will start to warm up

Grey skies and downpours have made April feel unusually cold - but warmer weather is on its way. According to the Met Office, April has been a 'month of two halves'.

With a warm fortnight followed by chillier weather, the average temperature actually remains above the norm. But a lack of sunshine and persistent rain could have contributed to it feeling colder than expected.

Forecasters expect warmer temperatures to return from Wednesday, May 1. The south east of England is set to enjoy highs of up to about 20C.

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The maximum temperature recorded so far this month was 21.8C in Writtle, Essex. The Met Office said there was a low of minus 6.3C in Shap, Cumbria - with a UK-wide average of 8.4C.

Met Office data indicates the UK has seen an average of 99mm of rainfall in April so far, which is 27 per cent higher than usual for the month. Amy Bokota, senior meteorologist at the Met Office, said: "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.

"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."

When asked why people may feel it has been colder than expected for springtime despite temperatures suggesting otherwise, Ms Bokota replied: "The last couple of weeks have 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."

The meteorologist said that even though warmer temperatures are expected at the start of May, they might not be the 'glorious heatwave' conditions people are hoping for ahead of the May bank holiday weekend.