Met Office predicts dry and settled weather for UK - but will there be a heatwave?

It hasn’t felt much like the height of summer this August, with sunny skies interrupted by rain and thunderstorms in some areas of the UK.

But sun-worshippers are in luck today as settled, drier weather appears in the forecast as rain moves off the scene.

A warmer end to August is also being predicted, with a heatwave predicted to arrive in the UK come September.

Temperatures reach mid-twenties

The rain that hit some parts of the country over the weekend disappeared Monday morning, allowing for a bright start to the new working week.

In England, the sunshine is brightening up through the day with some warm spells developing into the afternoon.

Tonight it is expected to stay dry, with light winds as the day hottens up, with an evening temperature of 9 degrees minimum.

In Scotland it will be a similar sunny scenario with the chance of the odd light afternoon shower across the hills and some coastal cloud persisting around the Islands this afternoon.

Sunny spells will appear in Northern Ireland with added overnight fog expected today and tomorrow - with low cloud burning back to the coasts which is expected to linger around the north coast for much of the day.

In Wales, sunshine is expected throughout the day with further cloud set to develop into the afternoon, allowing the odd light shower to develop, largely in the west.

Temperatures will hit the low-to-mid twenties for large parts of the country.

The mercury should climb to around 20 celsius for Northern Ireland, 22 celsius for parts of Scotland and England, and a warmer 23 celsius for Wales.

It’s looking fine and dry for the rest of the week with prolonged sunshine on Wednesday feeling warmer.

Thursday is expected to turn cloudier, but sunshine soon returns on Friday setting the scene for warmer weeks to come.

'Fine and settled'

A Met Office forecaster said: ‘Heading into September, the last week in August and into September is likely to be dominated by high pressure resulting in fine and settled weather across the UK.

‘This will bring variable amounts of cloud, sunny spells, a few light showers and mainly light winds but some fog patches overnight, which clear during early morning.’