UK records sunniest spring since records began in 1929 with lockdown heatwave set to continue

Britain has experienced its sunniest spring since records began in 1929, the Met Office has confirmed.

This May is also set to be the driest for 124 years in England ahead of official figures being published on Monday.

Some areas are already warning of impending droughts as reservoir levels lower, despite several bouts of extreme flooding earlier this year.

The Met Office recorded more than 573 hours of sunshine this spring so far between March 1 and May 27, beating the previous record of 555.3 hours set in 1948.

The scorching weather is also set to continue until at least midway through next week, with forecasters predicting highs of 28C early next week.

Glorious sunshine this month has proven a test of resolve for lockdown Britain, with thousands of sunseekers flocking to beaches over the past two weekends after Boris Johnson loosened the rules to allow day trips to beauty spots.

The hottest day of 2020 so far - 28.2C - was recorded on May 20 at Santon, in Suffolk, but the mercury came close on Friday with the Met Office logging 28C in Scotland.

This month has also seen little rainfall, with Northamptonshire – the driest county so far – recording only 1.5mm of rain during May.

Many farmers have seen some cereal crops already suffering from the dry spell and the National Farmers’ Union warned “widespread impacts for agriculture and the environment” will be felt if the current warm weather continues.

Marco Petagna, a metereologist at the Met Office, said the combination of a deluge last winter and a sunny spring could be linked to climate change.

“The fact we’re seeing more extreme weather events generally does tie in with global warming,” he told the Standard.

He said the sunny spring can be explained by high pressure “dominating” the UK weather and the jet stream keeping away rain.

It comes after the Met Office recorded the wettest February on record, as heavy rainfall from Storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge ravaged large parts of England and Wales.

Dr Mark McCarthy, from the Met Office’s national climate information centre, said: “Spring 2020 has been very dry, and May in parts of England has been exceptionally dry.

“As it stands up to May 27, for England, May 2020 is the driest May on record since 1896, with less than 10mm rain falling across England on average.”

Despite the drier conditions, there are no plans for hosepipe bans, with the Environment Agency (EA) stating on Thursday that most water companies have “appropriate” water reserves.

The Met Office said there have been only nine UK springs recording more than 500 hours of sunshine since 1929. Of those, five were recorded between 2003 and 2011.