Warmer weather could return to the UK this week, forecasters have predicted, with the capital set to see 14C by Friday.
The sunnier conditions are expected after days of persistent “anticyclonic gloom”, with London recording seven days without sun earlier this month.
According to the Met Office, London is set to see sunny weather on Monday and Tuesday, with temperatures of around 6C with the rest of the week getting steadily warmer until Friday’s highs of 14C.
The predicted temperatures of 14C by the middle of the week are well above February's average, with 9C the usual average in southern England, which will be a "noticeable shift" after the last fortnight which was below average, Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey previously said.
But it is not likely to be record-breaking, as February's highest temperature was 21.2C recorded in 2019 in Kew Gardens, he added.
More western areas are likely to see some rain during the week, while eastern areas are forecast to stay drier.
Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said he does not expect any national records to be broken, but some areas could go 10 days without any sunshine, which is "near record-breaking".
Mr Morgan said: "We've basically got this battleground taking place over this weekend between cold air across Scandinavia and central Europe, which is affecting eastern parts of the UK, but towards the west is a little bit milder.
"The Atlantic is trying to shift that cold air out of the way, pushing from west to east across the UK, but it's a very slow process and it will take until the middle of the coming week for conditions to turn much milder nationwide."
He explained the gloom "dominating" the UK over the last two weeks has been caused by a "large anticyclone", or high-pressure system, which has been sitting over Scandinavia, bringing cold wind from the east.
"Those cold conditions have picked up a lot of moisture across the Baltic and North seas, and those moist conditions have led to a lot of clouds," he added.
"That's why we haven't seen much in the way of sunshine in most of the UK recently."
