John
05-22-2010, 06:26 PM
Britain sizzled in temperatures higher than some Mediterranean hotspots on Saturday as sun worshippers made the most of the weekend heatwave.
And weather forecasters said it would be even hotter in southern and central parts of the country on Sunday.
Seaside resorts across the south and west of Britain were packed with visitors and in many city parks people stretched out to soak up the sun.
Afternoon temperatures in Manchester hit 26.7C, at one point edging ahead of Majorca on 26.5C and well above the May average of 16C.
The mercury in many areas of England and Wales climbed into the mid-20s, comfortably exceeding some of the Greek islands and Turkey's beach resorts.
Devon recorded a temperature of 25C, Blackpool 22C, central London 23.7C and Cardiff 24C. In contrast, Bodrum in Turkey, Athens and Crete only managed temperatures of 21C.
Gareth Harvey, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "It was cloudy, misty and murky to start with but the cloud burnt away quite quickly, leaving much of England and Wales dry and sunny.
"There was some patchy cloud over the Pennines this afternoon and northern Scotland had some showers, but the west of England had the best of the weather. There was no cloud across most of Wales and the South West of England.
"It's been great weather for being out and about, walking and going to the beach."
And weather forecasters said it would be even hotter in southern and central parts of the country on Sunday.
Seaside resorts across the south and west of Britain were packed with visitors and in many city parks people stretched out to soak up the sun.
Afternoon temperatures in Manchester hit 26.7C, at one point edging ahead of Majorca on 26.5C and well above the May average of 16C.
The mercury in many areas of England and Wales climbed into the mid-20s, comfortably exceeding some of the Greek islands and Turkey's beach resorts.
Devon recorded a temperature of 25C, Blackpool 22C, central London 23.7C and Cardiff 24C. In contrast, Bodrum in Turkey, Athens and Crete only managed temperatures of 21C.
Gareth Harvey, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "It was cloudy, misty and murky to start with but the cloud burnt away quite quickly, leaving much of England and Wales dry and sunny.
"There was some patchy cloud over the Pennines this afternoon and northern Scotland had some showers, but the west of England had the best of the weather. There was no cloud across most of Wales and the South West of England.
"It's been great weather for being out and about, walking and going to the beach."