Saturday set to be hottest day of the year so far

Get the factor 50 out!

Temperatures are forecasted to slowly rise across Thursday and Friday before culminating in highs of 26C in parts of the south of England.

Scotland and Northern Ireland are also expected to get a healthy helping of sunshine, with 22C forecast for Glasgow on Saturday and highs of 20C in Belfast.

While the heat will be felt in the north of England, cloudy skies, and patches of moving high pressure are "likely to cause periods of prolonged rainfall".

So far, the hottest temperature recorded this year was in Santon Downham in Suffolk, where temperatures reached 23.4C last Thursday.

Met Office meteorologist Amy Bokota said: "High pressure is forecast to dominate the UK for the rest of the week and into the weekend.

"High pressure brings dry and settled weather and with warm air sat over the UK this will give some pleasant warm temperatures. There is good confidence that high pressure will last until the weekend.

"Temperatures are expecting to build over the next few days, with a likely peak of Saturday."

Make sure you enjoy the warm weather while it lasts, the Met Office long range outlook suggests that Sunday will "likely be the last widely dry and fine day for a while, with warm sunshine for most".

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