Met Office confirms today as warmest day of the year so far with heatwave to come

The Met Office has confirmed that today is the warmest day of the year so far in the UK.

A temperature of 19.3C has been recorded in Kinlochewe in the Scottish Highlands. This is around 10C above average for this time of year in the area, forecasters said.

In a tweet, the Met Office confirmed that this officially makes today the warmest day of 2022 so far. This comes as much of the UK, including Greater Manchester, basks in glorious sunshine and enjoys warm temperatures.

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Both today and tomorrow in our region are set to be clear and bright, with highs of 15C predicted this afternoon. Temperatures will rise throughout the week with sunny intervals forecast for Monday and Tuesday, while later in the week we can expect more sunshine. Thursday and Friday could see highs of 17C.

But could there be a heatwave on the way as temperatures climb even higher? Jim Dale, senior meteorologist at British Weather Services, spoke to the Express about the potential of warmer weather this spring.

He said he 'wouldn't be surprised' to see the mercury reach 26C, 27C or 28C in the middle of April. He said: "I think hot weather could come in fairly early as far as April is concerned perhaps. I know March is the start of Spring but I think we’re probably going to get properly into April before we start to see the searing sort of temperatures.

He added: "I wouldn’t be surprised to see 26C, 27C, 28C in the middle of April. Longer-term, given what’s happening globally in terms of the temperature profiles in the southern hemisphere and what’s also happening in the United States, I would not be surprised if we started to see some big