Glorious weather to stay all week

Shropshire is set to bask in glorious sunshine for the rest of the week – although temperatures look set to start to drop by the weekend, forecasters said today.

Yesterday was the warmest March 26 for 86 years – with the mercury hitting 23C (73F) in some parts of the country – and forecasters predict a similar picture today.

In Shropshire the thermometer rose into the high teens and it was expected to be even hotter today.

There could be some rain on the horizon with showers forecast for Saturday. But it is only expected to be a brief respite from another prolonged spell of dry weather.

Lindsay Dovey, of MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "Today will be dry and sunny, with clear blue skies across the whole of the UK."

She said the hottest March 27 was in 1926 when 22.8C (73.04F) was noted in West Witton, North Yorkshire, while the highest recorded temperature in March was 25C (77F), most recently seen on March 29, 1968.

Much of Britain has been warmer than parts of Europe such as Barcelona, Nice, Majorca and Faro. Miss Dovey said: "Tomorrow will be dry and sunny again, but there will be some cloud in northernmost Scotland, as well as patchy drizzle.

"That cloud will start to move further south tomorrow night. "Friday will be cloudy across northernmost and western Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of north-west England and most of North Wales.

"Saturday is when temperatures will really start to drop. We're looking at 9C (48.2F) to 12C (53.6F) across most of the UK."

Despite the daytime temperatures growers and gardeners are still having to take note of plummenting night time temperatures.

Parts of Shropshire woke up to early morning frost this morning and temperatures were again expected to dip to freezing tonight under clear skies.

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