Weather today: Met Office forecasts sun today but showers throughout the week

Recent days have seen more and more showers across the country, but after a dry March and a warm April, overall we are still below the amount of rainfall expected at this time of year, and the ground is beginning to dry out. Gardeners will welcome the rain, and temperatures will not get too cold, say forecasters - they are set to stick within the seasonal average of 14C (57F) to 18C (64F).

Met Office meteorologist Dan Stroud said rain was “welcome news” as rainfall figures for April had so far remained below the amount expected for this time of year.

Mr Stroud said: “Changeable probably sums it (the weather) up nicely. The rain is going to be fairly welcome news for the gardeners, because it’s been actually very dry up until now. (For) April to date, rainfall figures are well below where they should be.”

The average rainfall figure for April nationally is 71mm, Mr Stroud said, but the UK has only seen 27.2mm so far, or 38% of the April average.

Tuesday is expected to see a chilly start, with a lot of dry and fine weather around a few isolated showers, Mr Stroud said.

He added: “It will cloud over from the west late in the day, with a band of heavy rain and strong and gusty winds arriving across England and Wales, pushing into Northern Ireland, southern Scotland during the overnight period in to Wednesday morning. That air of rain is not hanging around, it’s actually moving quite quickly south and eastwards across the country.

“So conditions will improve significantly during the course of the afternoon. Sunny spells and showers is the name of the game on Wednesday afternoon, and that leads quite nicely into a generally dry and settled spell of weather on Thursday.

“But that too will be very short-lived, with another band of cloud and rain slowly edging in from the west towards the end of the week, and more especially next weekend.”

The eastern parts of the country will see the driest and brightest skies, while parts of Wales, central southern England, and Northern Ireland will have wet and cloudy conditions, Mr Stroud said.

He added: “Daytime temperatures are generally around average, maybe just a smidge on the warm side of average at times. So we’re looking at 16C (61F) and 17C (63F) during the course of the week, maybe reaching 18C in some of the brightest spells.”