High-pressure has been largely dominant over the UK for the past week, with a good deal of dry, fine and sunny weather, but there has been a cold wind. The forecast for this week is showing that temperatures are set to rise with highs of 20°C by the weekend.
BBC Weather's long range forecast says that temperatures over the working week will be around 1°C above average, and between two and three degrees above average next weekend.
The Met Office forecast for the week says: "A split is likely with northern areas likely to see the wettest weather with showers or longer spells of rain at times. In the south, a few showers are possible but it will be mostly dry here. Temperatures will likely be around average or slightly above for the time of year." You can get more weather news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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There have been some reports that the temperature hike will be the start of a nine-day heatwave in the UK, with the Met Office long-range forecast predicting that "generally settled conditions should prevail in the south".
For the period Friday, May 6, to Sunday, May 15, it says: " Temperatures are likely to be around or above average throughout, but cooler towards the north and near coasts."
The BBC forecast for next weekend says: "Saturday should start settled for all regions but scattered showers could develop across Wales and England, dying out by the evening. Some rain may move over northern Scotland in the evening. Sunday should be a settled day across the south-east and eastern coastal regions with outbreaks of rain in other areas. Temperatures over the weekend are forecast to be 2-3C above average."
On the Countryfile forecast for the week, BBC weather forecaster Tomasz Schafernaker explained why it was so dry in April: "It really was a very, very dry month with some parts only seeing a third of the rainfall you would expect. Basically in early April we had an Azores high building across the UK that meant it deflected all the weather fronts and all the storms to the north of the UK, just clipping northern parts of Scotland.
"And then later in April, we also had high pressure but this time it was developing across Scandinavia and closer to Iceland, and the rainfall was being deflected to the south towards Iberia and France. So there was a rainfall." Bute Park in Cardiff, lots of people's favourite for a sunny day, has been valued - here's how much it's worth.
Talking about this week, he said: "The first half of the week is going to be a bit of a mixed bag. Showers will be developing across Wales and southern parts of England, with best of the sunshine a little bit further north. Towards the end of the week, we are going to see a change. The Azores high is building back again, bringing dry weather, especially towards more southern parts of the UK, but also around an area of high pressure. There'll be a current of mild, even quite warm air coming in from the Azores, which will sort of topple over into the British Isles.
"The temperatures are going to recover, perhaps to around 21°C."
The Met Office forecast for the end part of May says that "lower pressure" is more likely and will bring a change to more "generally unsettled conditions". Regarding temperatures, it says they are likely to " to remain near or above normal throughout".
The forecasting service's definition of a heatwave is: "An extended period of hot weather relative to the expected conditions of the area at that time of year, which may be accompanied by high humidity." A UK heatwave threshold is met when a location records a period of at least three consecutive days with daily maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding the heatwave temperature threshold.
