ENJOY this weekend’s hint of spring — but brace yourself for the icy blast to follow, the Met Office warned yesterday, as temperatures soared during Britain’s warmest weekend so far this year.
The sunshine turned northern Britain and Northern Ireland into the nation’s hotspots yesterday with temperatures in many areas slightly above those in the south.
The warmest place was Murlough, near Newcastle in Co Down, which hit 17.5C yesterday afternoon. The south of the UK was generally cooler but Gravesend in Kent hit a peak of 17C.
Fyvie Castle in Aberdeenshire recorded a high of just under 16C and Cardiff hit a relatively balmy 14.7C.
The unseasonable warmth was caused by sub-tropical air flowing from the Azores. But the Met Office said it would be only a temporary respite. Another storm system was moving across the Atlantic which was likely to send more weather fronts across Britain from this evening.
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“It’s going to stay very changeable, just as you’d expect in spring,” said a Met Office spokesman.
Although temperatures were expected to stay high in most of southern England today they will be back below 10C in most areas tomorrow and will stay that way with clouds, wind and outbursts of rain interspersed with sunny spells dominating the week.
For gardeners the advice was not to be fooled into a burst of mowing, digging or planting.
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Stefan Buczacki, the former presenter of Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, said that plants and lawns could suffer if they were cut back too brutally, especially when there was still a risk of late frosts.
“Nature knows best and has a way of evening things out. Who’s to know what will be happening in a fortnight?” he said.
“What you must not do is plant anything tender or any summer plants but simply use common sense, tidying where needed and giving the lawn a light cut. The weather is ideal for pruning roses, trimming hedges and generally catching up on tidying from the autumn.”
Tony Kirkham, head of the arboretum at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said spring was always a time of rapid changes with hard frosts often following relative heatwaves.
“Once things get above 10C we get lots of activity in terms of plant growth, so be ready for that, but for now just freshen up the garden and mow the lawn ready for it to start growing,” Kirkham said.
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“Also ensure everything is mulched. In terms of tree planting it’s your last opportunity to plant deciduous trees and especially bare root trees, for example fruit trees.”
The cause of Britain’s rapidly changing weather lies far out in the Atlantic where the Met Office weather maps for the next few days show two deep depressions. One is sitting, roughly static, between Greenland and Iceland while the other is further south and heading towards the UK.
Its arrival through Sunday night and Monday morning will be accompanied by rising winds and rain, especially over Northern Ireland and north-west England.
By Monday evening the depression will have moved on to Scandinavia, leaving a high-pressure zone over most of the British Isles that could bring some calm sunny weather on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Over the longer term, the prospects of a balmy spring remain good. The Met Office’s one-month and three-month forecasts (which it warns must be treated with some caution) say above-average temperatures are more likely than below average. Similarly, rainfall is more likely than not to be below average.
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The mild start to spring follows a similarly benign winter. It has been the sunniest since 1929 and February rainfall has been well below average.