Temperatures peak on warmest day of the year so far

The UK is enjoying the hottest day of the year so far – but temperatures are predicted to have reached their “peak for a while”, the Met Office said.

A temperature of 20.1C was recorded in Northholt, west London, and in both Porthmadog and Gogerddan in Wales as of around 2.05pm on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record of 19.2C at Northholt on March 5.

The Met Office later confirmed temperatures rose to 20.9C in Gogerddan and 20.2C in Northholt at 3.35pm.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said the higher temperatures are because of warm air being dragged up from further south in Europe.

Mr Madge said: “We get this a lot at this time of year, we sometimes joke the warmest day of the year klaxon is going off every day.

“I think this will be the peak for a while today, we are not expecting any further records in the next week or so.”

He added: “The values that have been reached today will probably be a high watermark for some little time to come.”

Other areas with high temperatures included Trawsgoed in Wales, which recorded 19.5C.

Forecasters expect temperatures to continue to rise across the UK throughout Wednesday afternoon.