The great British summer could finally be upon us next week with temperatures possibly reaching 30C for the first time since early July, forecasters have suggested.
The Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said 29C was “certainly possible and we may also climb towards 30C” by midweek in the first week of meteorological autumn as many schools open after the summer break.
The summery conditions can be tracked to a jet stream, which has been delivering largely unsettled spells of weather to the UK. It is continuing to shift north, allowing higher pressure to build widely across the UK during the weekend and into next week, according to the Met Office.
There is also the influence of the former tropical cyclone Franklin, which is still moving into the north Atlantic and amplifying the buildup of high pressure.
Vautrey said: “Finally after two months we have got a weekend where high pressure is going to be in charge. It has been building its way in from the Atlantic and it is going to be sticking with the vast majority of us throughout Saturday and Sunday.”
Contrasting temperatures on Saturday morning saw Braemar in Scotland reach 0.8C while central London temperatures did not drop below 17.3C.
Temperatures generally ranged from 20C to 24C in most places across the UK on Saturday. In Scotland, overnight temperatures into Sunday are expected to rise to about 14C in Glasgow or 13C in Aberdeen compared with a chilly 0.8C during the previous night.
Temperatures of 26C are expected in London and Hull on Sunday with 25C in Cardiff and 21C in Belfast forecast.
Vautrey added: “As we head into the new working week, high pressure is going to be staying with us for the vast majority.”
The best and most prolonged amount of sunshine will be towards the south of the UK, with the cloud just coming and going a touch more across the far north and stretching down into central Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland. “We may be into meteorological autumn, but it is giving us something a bit more summery that many of us have been missing,” said Vautrey.
