Much of Britain is set to enjoy more warm weather this week with plenty of sunshine on the way ahead of a possible weekend washout, according to the Met Office.
Temperatures are expected to reach highs of 17C (63F) in London, the South and the North East of England today and tomorrow, with 18C (64F) possible by Thursday.
This would make parts of the UK warmer than Ibiza, Madrid, Malta and Menorca, which are all expected to reach 16C (61F) – while Algiers will only make it to 17C (63F).
But conditions will begin to turn from Friday when showers move in and the weekend will see more unsettled conditions develop with rain across all parts of the country.
Met Office forecaster Oli Claydon said: ‘We will see increasing sunny spells across the south, central and northern parts of England and Wales.
‘There will be highs of 16C and 17C in the early part of this week anywhere the sun shines. There’s a chance of maybe scratching into 18C in the South East and London.
‘Wednesday will be largely settled. There will be a good deal of cloud around to start the day but that will break up and lift and we will see some sunny spells developing up through the afternoon.’
He added: ‘The real sort of change in weather really starts on Friday where we see more in the way of unsettled weather, with rain moving across all parts of the UK and also some quite breezy conditions with low pressure.
‘The weekend is looking to remain with rain in the forecast. There could be sunny spells at times through the weekend but there will be large amounts of cloud around and outbreaks of rain as well.’
Mother’s Day on Sunday is expected to see showers as Mr Claydon added that ‘certainly, the first half of the weekend will be more settled than the second’.
Temperatures will also cool at the end of the week.
A magnolia tree blooming in the gardens of St James’s Church in London’s Piccadilly yesterday
People enjoying the spring sunshine at Piccadilly Circus in London’s West End yesterday
A woman photographs a blossom tree at St James’s Park in London yesterday
Mr Claydon said: ‘Temperatures go a notch down through Thursday and into Friday as we get that increasing cloud so less influence of the sunshine breaking through bringing those temperatures up.’
These temperatures are ‘pretty normal for this part of March as we’re moving well into spring now’.
This comes after the UK saw its warmest spring equinox day since 1972 last Thursday as temperatures reached 21.3C (70.3F) at both Northolt in West London and Chertsey in Surrey.
That also beat the previous top figure for 2025 of 19.7C (67.5F) in Crosby, Merseyside, on March 9.
It was just shy of the highest recorded UK spring equinox temperature of 21.5C (70.7F) in 1972.
Wales also enjoyed both its hottest day of 2025 so far and its warmest spring equinox last Thursday as Gogerddan saw a peak of 20.4C (68.7F). The previous warmest spring equinox in Wales was 20.3C (68.5F) recorded in Valley in 2005.