Warmest day of the year so far in the UK

According to the Met Office, Coleshill in Warwickshire recorded the highest temperature on Thursday afternoon, reaching 18.7C at 1.41pm.

Whilst some parts of the UK remained cloudy, north east Wales, the Midlands, East Anglia and south east England had largely cloudless skies, with the sunshine pushing temperatures up to 16-18C.

The spring-like warmth has been courtesy of a south westerly wind bringing warm air all the way from the Azores.

Another contributing factor has been the Foehn effect, where moist air rises over the hills and mountains in the west of the UK and condenses to form clouds which deposit any rainfall in these areas.

By the time the air reaches the eastern side of the hills and mountains, it contains less moisture – effectively it’s much drier.

Drier air warms and cools more rapidly with elevation than moist air, so as this drier air moves across eastern areas, it warms and has the potential to give higher temperatures than it did when it was laden with moisture.

Given the topography of the UK, this puts places to the east of any hills and mountains in favour of seeing the highest temperatures — central and eastern parts of Scotland, England and Wales.

Yesterday it was thought that the highest temperature would be closer to 17C, but with less cloud than was expected, temperatures rose a degree or so higher.

Today’s warmth, however, hasn’t broken the February maximum temperature record, which stands at 19.7C – set at Greenwich Observatory in London on the 13th February 1998.

The remarkable warmth isn’t set to last as a cold front will bring cooler air to all parts of the UK on Friday, with temperatures expected to be a few degrees lower.

There are signs, however, that there’ll be another surge of warm air early next week, once again lifting temperatures into the mid-teens.