UK Warmth Sticking Around Through Friday

Beach goers enjoy the warming sun at Peel, Isle of Man, UK, on Monday, March 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Raphael Satter)

By Jim Andrews, Senior Meteorologist

Mar 26, 2012; 2:36 PM ET

The record warmth that blossomed over the U.K. last week will hang on for much of this week.
Through Thursday, daytime temperatures in some areas will top 20 degrees C (68 F), or about 10 degrees C (18 F) above normal.
The June-like warmth that began at the middle of last week has already rewritten the U.K. weather record. A reading of 22.8 degrees C (73 F), registered Sunday at Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire, marked the highest March temperature ever registered in Scotland, the U.K. Met Office said in its News Blog on Monday.
London topped 20 degrees C on both Friday and Saturday, March 23 and 24, days that normally barely rise above 10 degrees C.
The Met Office Blog likened the ongoing warmth to another March warming during the latter half of the month in 2005. Then, the temperature on March 19 reached 21.8 degrees C at Kew Gardens.
Strong high pressure together with inflow of air from the south were cited by the Met Office as underpinning the present warming.
These factors will remain instrumental to U.K. weather through Thursday or Friday, before a cold front brings at least a temporary cooldown.

A mostly cloudless British sky captured by satellite on Monday, March 26, 2012.(UK Met Office website)

UK Warmth Sticking Around Through Friday