In disappointing news for those who hoped summer had come early, the sunny spell that brought the hottest early May bank holiday weekend on record will come to an end on Wednesday.

Forecasters are predicting that after another day of unseasonably warm weather on Tuesday, with temperatures reaching mid-to-high 20s in and around London, the south-east and east Anglia, they will return to levels more typical for May.



Sophie Yeomans, a meteorologist at the Met Office said: “I’d expect the warmest place [on Wednesday] to be in south-east England, reaching 22C or maybe 23C. It will be more like 15 or 16 on Thursday and similar for Friday and Saturday.”

If 22C does not sound too bad, Yeomans said the picture was bleaker in other areas, particularly in the west of the UK. She said a band of rain would be pushing into western parts with possible heavy bursts in Northern Ireland and Scotland on Thursday morning.

It will be a far cry from the sweltering bank holiday weekend, when a high of 28.7C was reached in Northolt, west London, on Monday afternoon, making it the hottest early May bank holiday Monday, and weekend, since records began. Sun worshippers flocked to beaches and parks, while supermarkets said sales of ice-cream, rosé wine and barbecue staples soared.

The long-term average UK temperature in May, based on figures from 1981 to 2010, is 10.4C, according to the Met Office, although last year the mean May temperature was 12.1C, making it the second warmest May (behind 2008) since 1910.