Temperatures could soar to 28C in April this year

Temperatures could soar as high as 28C by mid-April as a result of global warming, a weather forecaster has warned.

Jim Dale, senior meteorologist at British Weather Services, said hot weather is expected to arrive "fairly early" this year, and that temperatures in the high 20s would be "unsurprising" next month.

Daytime temperatures in the UK usually average around 12C during April.

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Speaking to the Daily Express, the forecaster 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.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see 26C, 27C, 28C in the middle of April."

Mr Dale said such "spikes of heat" could be expected earlier in the year "because of global warming".

"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 highlights - in whichever direction it goes, either cold or hot," he said.

Last year was one of the warmest years on record, according to the experts.

A data set compiled by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia (UEA) puts 2021 as the joint sixth-warmest year on record.

The warmest seven years on record have all occurred since 2015, with 2016, 2019 and 2020 the hottest three.

Countries have agreed to take action to try to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including more extreme floods, storms,