Britain records coldest Easter day on record

... and this March was the coldest since 1962

An Easter bunny made of snow in a garden in Oster-Ohrstedt, northern Germany today (Getty Images)

Britain has had its coldest ever Easter day it has been confirmed, smashing the previous record from 1986.

That year, Easter Monday saw temperatures as low as -9.8C.

On Easter Sunday 2013, however, the lowest temperature recorded was -12.5C in Braemar, in the Scottish Highlands.

This is way below the average temperature for this time of year, which is between 10C and 13C.

Easter Monday is expected to remain very cold, with the cold spell lingering for another fortnight.

Part of the reason for the new record is that it is an unusually early Easter. Only around a fifth of Easters - a movable feast- fall in March.

The record comes after the entire month of March was provisionally declared the UK's coldest since 1962.

The Met Office said that from 1 March to 26 March the UK mean temperature was 2.5C - three degrees below the long-term average.