Britain will enjoy the warmest weather of the year so far this weekend as Britain basks in glorious sunshine, weather forecasters have predicted.

It is expected to be around 10 degrees above the seasonal average in the coming days as thermometers in parts of Britain hit 24C-25C (75F-77F).

Much of the UK enjoyed warm conditions over the Easter weekend and the sunshine will continue thanks to high pressure close to Britain.

Forecaster Brendan Jones of MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "It's going to be a pretty hot weekend everywhere really. It'll certainly be the warmest we've seen this year.

"Today, there may be a fair bit of cloud around, but the sunshine will come through, and that'll be country-wide.
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"We'll have temperatures of around 22C-25C (72F-77F) across the south, with highs in London. And in Scotland the temperatures will still be in the high teens or low 20s."

But he warned that wind coming in off the sea along the eastern coast of Scotland and north east England could lead to a lot of low cloud.

"That can lead to depressingly low temperatures, but it should soon clear," he said.

He added: "There'll be very little change tomorrow and it may just be a degree or two warmer after a grey and possibly foggy start."

He added Northern Ireland will see temperatures of 18C-19C (64F-66F), inland Scotland 18C-20C (64F-68F) and along Scotland's eastern coast it will be around 11C-13C (52F-55F).

In Wales and the West Country there will be one or two showers over the mountains, but temperatures are still expected to hit 21C-22C (70F-72F).

Ladbrokes offered odds of 20/1 that April's record temperature of 29.4C (84.92F), recorded in Camden Square on April 16, 1949, would be beaten today.

The firm also offered odds of 3/1 that thermometers would reach 37.8C and break the 100F barrier in 2007.