Britain is set for a sunny Easter bank holiday weekend, with temperatures potentially breaking national records.

Temperatures reached 25C (77F) on Good Friday and were forcecast to hit 27C on Monday.

The Met Office forecaster Helen Roberts said there would be dry, sunny and very warm conditions with temperatures continuing to rise slightly on Saturday and Sunday to a possible 27C on Easter Monday.

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The Met Office said it would be “a glorious day” in most areas, but that outbursts of rain might clip north-west Scotland on Saturday.

On Saturday, temperatures broke records in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with both areas seeing their warmest ever Easter Saturday. Temperatures reached 23.2C in Scotland, compared to a previous record high of 21.4C. For Northern Ireland it was 21C on Saturday, compared to the previous record of 19.4C. Easter Sunday and Monday records are likely to be broken, according to the Met Office.

The warmest Easter on record was on Easter Sunday in 1949, when the temperature was recorded at 29.4C in Camden Square, north London.



In 2011, the temperature reached 26.9C at St James’s Park in central London on Good Friday, and 25.3C on Easter Sunday and 24C on Easter Monday, both in the Solent. Roberts said these last two temperatures were the ones that could beexceeded this weekend.



She said the highest temperature on Friday was 24.5C, recorded at Wisley in Surrey. Southern England and south Wales could experience mist and fog, but that would dissipate pretty quickly in the morning with the strong sunshine. Roberts said cloud and rain would disappear by Monday.



The warmest Easter Mondays recorded nationally were 21.4C in Culzean Castle, Scotland, in 2014, 23.2C in Nantmoor, Wales, in 1984, and 21.1C in Knockarevan, Northern Ireland, also in 1984.

One person tweeted: “Last night is the very first night this year I’ve slept with the window open. And how did I spend the hottest day of the year so far? At work!”

Others expressed concern about the high temperatures, with one person tweeting: “I think the new story here is the fact that the planet is about to be incinerated with climate change.”

Hundreds of demonstrators were in London this weekend as part of the Extinction Rebellion protest over climate change. The Metropolitan police said 106 people had been arrested on Friday, bringing the total number of arrests to 682 since the action started on Monday.

Emma Thompson, who joined the climate action protest, told activists her generation had failed young people.