UK weather: Britain could be set for 'hottest May on record' as global temperatures soar

Weekend in early May where temperatures reached a high of 27C have pushed up UK average

A couple sit on Brighton beach on Tuesday during unseasonably hot weather (PA)

The UK could be set for one of the hottest Mays in over 100 years after temperatures hit 27 degrees Celsius early on in the month – but it all depends on the weather over the next two weeks.

The warm weather in early May led to average temperatures for the month to be one degree warmer than usual, and the Met Office anticipates that “this could go up” if the weather becomes warmer over the next fortnight. It also saw the hottest day of the year recorded on 9 May when Plockton in western Scotland recorded a high of 27.7C.

A typical average temperature for the month is 10.33C, according to Met Office records held between 1981 and 2010, and the hottest May since UK-wide records began in 1910 was seen in 2008, when average temperatures hit 12.2C.

A Met Office spokesman told The Independent that at the moment, experts “anticipate that by the end of the month [average temperatures] could be at 12C”.

The warmer-than-usual weather comes as global temperatures have risen to record-breaking highs for seven consecutive months.

This year’s April was the hottest on record globally according to data from Nasa, beating the previous record by the largest margin ever and following a seven-month trend where land and sea temperatures have been recorded at one degree warmer than average.

But the UK’s chance of having a record breaking May is likely to be scuppered by the current forecast of showers and cooler temperatures.

The Met Office’s Grahame Madge said that weather systems coming in from the Atlantic will be bringing rain in the coming days and into the weekend, with central and western parts of Britain expected to be hit by showers on Friday, spreading to much of the UK on Saturday with some clear spells.

Temperatures on Friday and Saturday are expected to hit highs of 11C in northern Scotland and up to 19C in the south east, dropping to around 10C in northern Scotland and 18C in the south east by Monday.