Weather today: Easter bank holiday weekend to end with cloud and rain for much of UK according to Met Office - what is the forecast for this week?

The weather service said that Monday would be “rather cloudy with rain continuing eastwards, sometimes heavy and thundery over England in the afternoon”. It added that “sunny spells and showers” will follow into western regions with temperatures mostly around the seasonal norm.

Met Office operational meteorologist Dan Stroud said: “It will be a rather cloudy start to Monday with a band of rain moving eastwards during the course of the day, turning a little bit brighter and showery from the west later on Monday afternoon. So it’s not a complete washout for the likes of Northern Ireland, Wales and the south and west.”

Mr Stroud said there would be highs of 17C to 18C on Monday but temperatures may drop overnight into Tuesday “low enough for a touch of frost in the very far north of the country”. He told the PA news agency: “But for many, Tuesday actually starts on a dry and bright note.

“We’ve got the legacy of Monday’s rain still hanging on to the extreme north and east of Scotland but then it’s all eyes to the west as a fairly deep area of low pressure approaches. So cloud and outbreaks of heavy rain will spread in from the west during the course of Tuesday.”

Mr Stroud added that parts of Devon and Cornwall have already had their average monthly rainfall over the last week. The meteorologist said conditions will “gradually improve” and “become increasingly dry and bright” towards the end of the week as high pressure starts to build in from the north.