It’s like we’ve gone from Autumn straight into Spring with the exceptionally mild weather at the moment. The daffodils are out in some places in the south, the roses are still flowering and it was comfortable enough for me to potter around in the garden yesterday in just a shirt. Kew Gardens in London saw the top temperature yesterday of 15.5C, it was some way to beat the date record of 17.0C set in 1972. But as the very mild conditions look no signs of relenting over the coming days, it’s only a matter of time that one or two date records are broken.

Temperatures vs the average for the time of year over the next few days.

Scotland saw some wintriness earlier this week, but even here this morning temperatures are well into double figures at 7am, even in the Northern Isles. On Tuesday morning, Inverness was -1C at 7am, this morning it’s 14C. In fact a few stations in northern Scotland and further south across SW England are already 15C. So it’s a very mild start to the morning everywhere, with a brisk to strong southerly wind. (Check the latest top 20 temperatures here.)

It will stay generally dry across eastern areas of England this morning, with broken cloud or clear skies allowing some brightness or sunshine. Out towards the west, though, a band of rain along a cold front, heavy over the hills, will push in through the morning across Scotland, NW England, Wales and SW England, accompanied by a strong southerly wind gusting to 30-40 mph, perhaps more over exposed coasts and hills.

This band of rain will reach The Midlands and central southern England this afternoon, weakening as it does so, before the front and its rain reaches SE England and East Anglia this evening. Turning drier and brighter, but not really any colder behind the rain band. With regards to maximum temperatures today, it’s the 17th of December, but 14-16C is possible in the south, 13-14C in the north.