Temperatures are expected to remain around average or slightly below average over the weekend, but the forecast of diminishing showers from Monday opens the door for temperatures to rise.

Neil Armstrong is a Met Office Chief Forecaster. He said: “A period of showery conditions during summer always brings the possibility of some of those showers turning heavy and thundery, possibly with hail. Some of these showers will be slow-moving so that could increase local impacts with rainfall totals reaching 30mm or more in isolated locations.  In the heaviest showers these could be accompanied by hail and lightning.”

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Drier conditions ahead

During the early part of next week, conditions are forecast to become more dominated by a ridge of high pressure. This will bring the prospect of drier, brighter and more settled conditions for much of the UK.

Daniel Rudman is a Met Office Deputy Chief Forecaster. Commenting on the conditions, he said: “We anticipate that the  area of high pressure currently over the Azores will increasingly extend towards the South West of the UK. This will lead to leading to a good deal of warmer and mostly dry weather, especially across the south, although it may also bring cloud and rain into the northwest at times.

“With the position of this high pressure bringing air in from the Atlantic, it unlikely to encourage exceptionally high temperatures as those are normally associated with a southerly flow of air from southern Europe or North Africa. However, we are likely to see a shift away from the below-average temperatures to values somewhat above average possibly even extending to very warm especially across the south.”

Check tips for keeping cool in hot weather as part of WeatherReady from the Met Office.

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