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UK weather: country enjoys record-breaking Easter Sunday


It has been raining in Spain and it’s jumper weather on the coast of Sicily, but in the UK it has been another glorious day with record-breaking temperatures across much of the country.

Amid warnings that the heatwave was evidence of climate change, the Met Office said new Easter Sunday temperature records were set in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland with the distinct possibility England could follow suit by the end of the day.

Related: UK temperature hits 70-year high for Easter bank holiday

Emma Smith, a meteorologist, said a record 23.2C (73.6F) was reached at Hawarden airport in Flintshire, Wales, while in Edinburgh, the Scottish record of 20.7C set in 2015 was beaten with a temperature of 23.4C. Helen’s Bay, on the northern coast of County Down, managed 21C, breaking the Northern Ireland record set in 1924 of 19.4C.

In England, the highest temperature by afternoon was 25C in Wisley, Surrey, short of the record 25.3C. On Easter Saturday, the warmest day of the year so far was recorded at 3.30pm at Gosport, Hampshire, a temperature of 25.5C.

“The winds are really light, there are no clouds so the sun carries on heating the ground up quite late into the afternoon,” said Smith.

Smith said the hot weather was likely to continue on bank holiday Monday. “We could see 25C or 26C. We’ve got some medium-level cloud coming in from the continent so there’s a question mark over whether we will see any warmer than that. That cloud could also introduce an isolated thunderstorm across Wales.”

While it is difficult to definitively link any one spell of unusual weather with climate change, scientists say that rising temperatures in general are clear evidence of the urgency of the crisis.

Nonetheless, the sunny weather meant Britain’s seaside resorts were far busier than normal. Tourism chiefs in Bournemouth said about 52,000 people were on the beaches on Saturday and the car parks had filled up by midday on Sunday. About 640,000 visitors were expected in the town over the four-day holiday.

For others it was a chance to get in the garden and crank up the barbecue. Asda was predicting sales of barbecue meat to rise by 60% over the weekend.

The Humberside police dog section urged people not to leave their dogs in vehicles or over-exercise them in the heat, and to watch out for dogs’ paws on hot surfaces such as tarmac.

Among the famous faces enjoying the heat was Paul McCartney, who tweeted a picture of himself riding a horse through a field of rapeseed.

Members of the royal family squinted in the bright sunshine as they arrived at St George’s Chapel in Windsor for an Easter Mattins service that coincided with the Queen’s 93rd birthday, a date she shares with Iggy Pop, 72, and the Cure’s Robert Smith, 60. A crowd sang Happy Birthday as the Queen left.

The UK was warmer than Spain, Italy and Greece – but it will not last. Forecasters are predicting a return to cooler conditions, with thunderstorms expected from Wednesday.