Soaring temperatures may have led to parts of the UK feeling warmer than much of the Mediterranean on Monday, but any early signs of spring are likely to be washed away as heavy rain, gales and snow hit northern England by the end of the week.
On Monday afternoon, Kew Gardens in south-west London recorded a balmy 18.3C (64.94F) at 2pm, making it the hottest place in the country just a week after tourists were photographing snow falling on the early blossoms.
Northolt, in north-west London, hit the same, beating the 17.8C recorded in the heart of the capital at St James’s Park. Although Aberdeen recorded an overnight high of 13C at 3am – zero or lower would be more common at this time of year – a sharp north-south divide developed as the day progressed: while visitors sat picnicking on the grass in Kew, Blackpool in drizzly rain barely managed 9C.
The lowest February temperature was the -10C recorded at Princetown in Devon, after the famously bitter winter of 1955-56. In contrast, the highest temperatures in the south-east on Monday were not far behind the record for a February day, 19.7C recorded at the Greenwich Observatory in 1998.
“We’re getting there,” said Nicola Maxey, a forecaster at the Met Office. The records were likely to stay in place this week, she added, with cold, wet and windy weather sweeping down through the country by the end of the week.
“Keep an eye on the Met Office website,” she warned. “We’re likely to be putting some warnings out later in the week, of rain and high winds. We could see some quite heavy snow above [altitudes of] 400 metres, and snow and sleet above 150 metres – but we’re not expecting that to reach the south-east.”
Monday’s top temperatures exceeded Met Office predictions. Forecasters had described the weather as unusually mild, with overnight temperatures in the south sticking at 8C or 9C – a more normal daytime temperature for February – but had predicted only a slight chance that the temperature would rise above 17C anywhere.
Blossom has not been as early as some recent winters because much of January was bitterly cold and frosty.
The National Trust has completed its annual flower count in the south-west, with its gardeners counting the blooms out on Valentine’s Day. They noted an unusually high number of scented plants flowering early, but the total of 1,737 plants in flower is well down on last year, and barely more than half the record year, the 3,335 recorded in 2008.
A spokeswoman at Kew Gardens said though spring had not arrived “freakishly early” the grounds were full of colour. “We also have the orchid festival in full swing, so the hot houses are a nice tropical place to retreat to if the weather does break,” she said.
