UK weather: Royal wedding could be on the hottest day of the year

This Saturday's royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle looks set to take place on the hottest day of the year so far, according to the bookmaker Ladbrokes.

It is offering odds of 5/1 that the Prince and his bride will see temperatures in excess of 29.1C when they tie the knot at the weekend.

“It is still early, but the forecast is for hot and sunny weather. 

"The question many people are asking is: Just how hot will it be?” said Ladbrokes spokesperson Jessica Bridge.

Earlier this month it was announced that the couple had selected an open-topped carriage for the procession that is due to take place at 1pm, just after the marriage ceremony, according to the scheduled timings for the wedding day.

The Met Office is currently predicting that the 19 May will be “bright and dry”. 

Though fine weather is predicted, it isn’t expecting the royal wedding day to be the hottest day of the year so far. The 19th April currently holds that record - when 29.1C was recorded in St James’ Park.

The Met Office reports on its website: "At this early stage, there is some uncertainty about the amount of cloud around but we can expect at least some warm sunny spells.

"Early temperature forecasts suggest that the day will start off rather cool, with an early morning temperature of around 6 Celsius, so anyone who arrives early to get a good place in the crowd will need to wear something warm. 

"The maximum temperature in Windsor that day will be around 20 Celsius, compared to an average for the time of year of around 17 Celsius."

It added: "We are fairly confident that there will be no rain to spoil the proceedings with only a very small chance of a shower.

Forecaster Bonnie Diamond said some "puffs of light, fluffy cloud" may form in the late morning and early afternoon as temperatures soar but not enough to completely block out the sun.

She said: "We are expecting it to be fine and dry. There could be a little bit of mist early on but that will burn off relatively quickly.

"The main uncertainty is cloud cover, with fair weather cloud developing through the afternoon - it's temperature driven.

"At the moment the average temperature looks like 19C to 20C (68F) but up to 23C is possible.

"The amount of sunshine and cloud cover will determine whether we get those upper temperatures."

Based on historical Met Office data that goes back 40 years the 19 May has a one-in-eight chance of rain over the 24 hour period.

The wettest 19 May that took place in recent years was in 2006. In this case the downpour came after night had fallen, so wouldn’t have ruined any events planned during the day.

After a recent spate of uncharacteristically hot and sunny weather Ladbrokes is offering odds of 4/7 that this May will be the hottest on record.

Temperatures of 25.1C  were recorded on 7 May, making it the hottest early May Bank Holiday Monday on record.

The coming week is set to see mostly average temperatures, according to the Met Office, mostly hovering around 15C to 18C.

Today is forecast to be the hottest day of the week with a peak of 22C.