UK sees highest temperature of the year, snow and blood rain in last 48hrs

Spring has started with some typically large swings in weather fortunes with more on the way.

In a busy 48 hours of weather we have seen the UK’s warmest day of the year so far, a covering of hill snow, as well as Saharan dust and “blood rain”.

In a welcome change to the last couple of months, large parts of central and eastern England have just had one of the driest weeks of the year so far with less than 1mm of rain recorded widely.

Temperatures have been above average across the board with England, Wales and Scotland recording their highest temperature of the year so far.

Despite the record temperatures on Thursday, colder weather briefly moved into northern areas of the UK where on Friday it was even cold enough for some hill snow in Scotland and north England.

And although the recent dry spells are worthy of note, there have been some even lengthier drier spells of weather this year for certain parts of the country.

Parts of the Highlands had dry weather for nearly a fortnight between late January and early February. Indeed the winter for west Scotland and northwest England ended up being much drier than average.

The mild weather arrived with southerly winds, which also pushed a layer of Saharan dust from North Africa across the skies of England on Thursday and Friday leading to poor air quality and a rather muted sunrise as the dust blocked some of the sun’s light.

Blood rain was reported in parts of the Midlands. This is when Saharan dust mixes with raindrops leaving behind a reddish-brown residue on surfaces. It provided the perfect excuse for having a dirty car.

This weekend is looking quite mixed. Scotland and Northern Ireland will have a fine day with some sunshine on Saturday. After a cold and frosty start for some, it should feel quite pleasant in the afternoon sunshine. It will turn cloudier on Sunday with the best of any sunshine in northern areas.

England and Wales will have a mainly cloudy weekend with the prospect of some patches of rain on Saturday and probably some mist and fog into Sunday morning.

The cloud is likely to break up in south-east England by Sunday afternoon with some spells of sunshine developing.

Temperatures this weekend will range between 11-14C, but in any sunshine in the south-east on Sunday temperatures could reach up to 18C.

Next week is looking much more unsettled with spells of rain and at times it will become windy. The wettest and windiest weather will be across western areas.

It will turn colder through the week so we may even see some hill snow returning by the end of the week to Scotland, Northern Ireland, north England and perhaps Wales too.