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04th May 2018

Bank Holiday Burn: Met Office confirm hottest May Bank Holiday ever

PASS ME A REKORDERLIG

Oli Dugmore

PASS ME A REKORDERLIG

Yo-ho-ho, and an empty bottle of rum – left next to my dozing torso in the park. It’s gonna be a scorcher.

Met Office forecasters are predicting a record-breaking May Bank Holiday Burn with temperatures in the South reaching the high 20s, possibly even 30C, which would break the 1999 May Day record of 23.6C.

The historic weekend scorcher starts Friday closer to 20C, on Saturday the South will sit around 25C with highs in the upper teens likely across Scotland and the North.

Sunday sees the trend continue as beautiful sunshine coats the country and will even warm cold souls in the North.

Government forecasters say there is a high chance temperatures in parts will skyrocket into the high 20Cs on Monday beating the May Day record.

The record for the May Bank Holiday as a whole is 1995’s 28.6C although the highest temperatures were not recorded on the Monday that year’s public holiday.

Meteorologist for the Royal Meteorological Society Chloe Moore said: “After quite wet, windy weather last week this Bank Holiday weekend the weather is looking much more pleasant.

“There will be plenty of sunshine, warm temperatures and potentially even record-breaking temperatures, especially on Sunday and Monday.

“As we have gone through this week the jet stream, which is what usually drives our weather here in the UK, has moved further northwards, flowing over northern Scotland and that has allowed an area of high pressure to establish itself over the UK and the rest of north-western Europe.

“When we have high pressure this time of year it typically brings settled conditions, fine and dry weather and with the air coming up from the continent the air will be much warmer.”

Paddy Power are massively odds-on that this weekend will be the hottest May Bank Holiday on record – slashing the price to 1/5, which equates to a 83.3 per cent chance.

As recently as a week ago, the odds would’ve been flipped, and around 5/1.

An image of a beach image appearing on the front page of at least one redtop this weekend is evens, more than one motorway being crowded as motorists flock to the seaside sits at 10/1 and ice cream selling out in at least one major UK city at 66/1.

Spokesman Lee Price said: “Get these bets while they’re hot – as the odds have been melting over the last few days.

“We think the UK is set for a blistering bank holiday weekend – which also, inevitably, means packed beaches, roads, and frozen supermarket aisles.”

Hold on to your swimming trunks, it’s going to get HAWT.