With snow falling in the Highlands, heavy rain lashing the west coast and severe weather warnings for gale force winds across the entire country from Monday - it could only be summer in Scotland.

While the south of England continues to bask in a prolonged dry spell that has led to water shortages in some areas and sunbathing temperatures of over 70ºF (21ºC), people north of the border will be looking out raincoats and umbrellas for the next week at least, with the wet weather set to last into June.

Heavy rain is expected to spread throughout Scotland this weekend, though temperatures will remain relatively mild with highs of 59ºF (15ºC) in the east coast and parts of Grampian.

Downpours will also continue across the country into the beginning of next week, twinned with gale force winds on Monday and Tuesday. A severe weather warning issued by the Met Office yesterday saw Scotland engulfed by a yellow alert notice, while the rest of the UK, except for small areas of northern England and Ireland, look set to avoid it completely.

A notice posted on the Met Office website warned that gusts would reach up to 60mph in the Central Belt, with exposed areas battered by winds of up to 70mph.

And while forecasts into the beginning of June predict an easing off of the storm condition, any prospect of barbecue weather looks far off.

The Met Office's Helen Chivers said: "There are people in the south east who would love a share of the rain you're getting in Scotland at the moment, but it isn't looking great for Scotland. You're going to continue to have rain on Saturday.

"The east might get away with a mostly dry morning but rain coming in from the afternoon and into nighttime will be pretty heavy.

"Unfortunately you're going to continue to have rain from time to time in the next couple of weeks, but we should see some warming up as we head into late next week, and the rainfall becoming much lighter with showers and light outbreaks.

"In the longer-term outlook, we expect rainfall for the first half of June to be around average or just below, so that should see the wet weather easing off in Scotland as well and drier conditions. But there's probably not going to be much in the way of sunbathing weather for a while."

The cause of the UK's current north-south weather divide, said Ms Chivers, is that while Scotland is being hit by Atlantic weather systems moving in from the west, most of the rest of the UK is covered in a high pressure system moving up from Continental Europe.

Higher ground in the northwest Highlands was also braced for gales and "hail or heavy snow" yesterday, with heavy rain expected to spread across Skye and Lochaber today.

The washout summer conditions north of the border are a far cry from weather in the south of the UK, with residents in London and the south east enjoying sunshine and Mediterranean-like highs of 72ºF (22ºC).

But while Scotland has been deluged on and off in April and May, there are fears that England and Wales could be facing a drought after they recorded their lowest rainfall in March and April since 1938.

The lack of rain has prompted warnings from farmers' groups and water companies that some crops have already been "irreversibly" damaged and that some river levels were on a par with the Britain's record drought on 1976.