How long the warm weather will last as summer holidays begin
More warm weather is expected across parts of Britain this week as the school holidays come into full swing – but, as has been the theme for much of this summer, it may not last for long.
Rain returned over the weekend following Friday’s scorching heat, with the Met Office advising that Monday could bring yet more rain and cloudy conditions for many.
While not expected to reach the 31°C heights of that hottest day of the year, the forecaster said it should feel warmer in the sunshine than yesterday, while Tuesday is set to be warm and sunny with some scattered showers.
The Met Office predicts sunshine and some showers on Wednesday, a breezy Thursday with rain for most, and showers in the north but drier conditions in the south on Friday.
According to the UK’s long-range weather forecast last updated on Sunday afternoon, Friday’s mixed conditions are likely to become “more settled” into next weekend as the south sees “potential for warmer or thundery conditions for a time”.

Looking ahead to next week, when the majority of schools across England and Wales will join their counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland on summer holidays, the Met Office added: “Changeable weather patterns seem likely to resume early in August.
“Showers and occasional spells of rain are likely to affect all regions at times. However, some drier and brighter interludes are also expected, these are most likely to be in southern and eastern regions. The most frequent spells of wet weather are most likely to be across northern and western areas.
“Temperatures mostly close to or slightly above average for a time, with any warmer spells generally short-lived”.
Short-lived as those warmer spells may be, the current forecast for the rest of August does mention conditions that are both warmer and drier than average for the time of year: “Through the period as a whole, drier than average conditions are more likely than wetter than average.
“Warmer than average conditions are also weakly favoured overall, with a slightly enhanced likelihood of short-lived hot spells”.
The predictions of some warmer and drier conditions should come as some consolation to Britons bemoaning what has been a relatively unsettled summer so far.
Dr Simon Lee, a lecturer in atmospheric science at the University of St Andrews, told i last week that despite what it feels like, we are far from seeing the dampest summer ever recorded.
“The fact that it’s been unusually cold and unusually wet in July is what has contributed to this sense of a poor summer,” he said. “But compared with the wettest summers on record, we are still a long way off.”
The back half of June was drier and warmer than typical for the time of year, which went some way to offsetting a particularly cold start to last month and what has been one of the wettest starts to July (usually when the UK can expect the warmest summer weather) on record.