Make the most of good weather because Indian summer likely to be gone by weekend in Northern Ireland

After a fine weekend the warm weather continued today and more of the same is expected tomorrow and Wednesday.

Thursday may remain warm but there is a chance of some showers and by the weekend the Met Office has said that the rain will get heavier, winds will pick up and there is even the chance of the odd isolated thunderstorm.

But for now the UK is sizzling in September sunshine with southern regions forecast to hit 32 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday.

It has seen a heat health alert issued across much of England for the rest of the week.

Met Office spokesperson Oli Claydon told the PA news agency: “We will see good sunny conditions through the week with cloudless skies, and some high temperatures by the time we get to Wednesday and Thursday, where we could see 31 maybe 32 degrees.

“The high temperatures are quite widely spread across the UK, although the highest temperatures are probably somewhere in south-eastern England spreading out to central parts of England as well.

“(It could be) a warm night overnight on Wednesday, with the potential for temperatures not dropping below 20 degrees, which is what we term a tropical night.

“That’s most likely in the southern half of the UK and more likely in urban areas where the temperatures obviously stay up that little bit higher overnight.”

The forecaster explained tropical storms in the far western Atlantic and deep areas of low pressure have helped to amplify the jet stream over the Atlantic Ocean and has led to high pressure “dominating over the UK”.

The Met Office said temperatures could also hit 31C on Friday, although there could be more cloudy weather and chances of rain in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

But the weather conditions could change over the weekend and Mr Claydon said there is “no indication at the moment of another strong heatwave after this”.

He added: “Through the weekend, we start to see some heavy, potentially thundery, showers developing but (they are) only isolated. There is a little bit of uncertainty as we start to get that far ahead.”

Average temperatures are expected to return next week.