Despite a bleak weekend across much of the country with grey skies, chilly winds and some rain for parts of England and Wales, there are hints and signs, finally, of quite a significant warm-up through next week.

Saturday temperatures will only rise to 13C or 14C (55-57F) at best in southern England, with eastern areas struggling to get above 7C (45F) in that raw east to north-east wind - very much a hat and gloves day by the North Sea coast.

However, temperatures could nudge up a couple of degrees on Sunday and Monday, then to rise to 18C (64F) by midweek.

The weather will remain unsettled for a while with some rain from time to time for most, but by the end of the week it is starting to look a lot drier, except perhaps for north-west Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland.

High pressure will build over the Continent to push the rain away northwards, and this will drag warm south-westerly winds across the UK.

Although looking a week or more into the future means that it is far from certain, the balance of probabilities suggests that temperatures will rise as high as 20-22C (68-72F) next weekend, in parts of England at least; neither would it be too much of a surprise if somewhere in the south hit 24-25C (75-77F) - unless it turns thundery.