UK weather: Britain could see the beginning of a heatwave next weekend

Don't give up on summer yet as the sunshine will make another appearance in the south-east after a week of cooler weather

The sunshine will come back for the south-east of England at least (PA)

The beautiful sunshine much of Britain has seen over the weekend will not last as cooler winds and patches of rain are swept across the country in the coming days.

Scotland will see occasional bouts of rain throughout the week and heavy winds are expected in the north-east of England.

From Wednesday the showers will be begin to move southwards but the south-east will escape much of the rain as a south-westernly wind means temperatures will stay in the 22 or 23C range.

But all is not lost as meterologists believe temperatures will rise again into the later part of the week and into next weekend.

Mark Wilson, a spokesman for the Met Office, told The Independent over the next few days it will feel like "the opposite of a heatwave" with temperatures "to being cooling down over the next few days".

But "as we reach the later half of the week we may start to see temperatures rising gradually".

In the coming weeks the official Met Office forecast predicts a starkly different picture depending on where you are in the UK with cloudier and windier conditions with outbreaks of rain in the north but the south will stay dry.

It even has a bright and hot weather as winds push up from southern continental countries.

But the Met Office warned that with this weather came an increased rise of thunderstorms.

In order for Britain to officially classed as experiencing a heatwave there has to be five consecutive days where the maximum temperature exceeds the average by more than 5C.

Over the weekend parts of England saw highs of 26 and 27C but a "be aware" severe weather warning is in place for much of Scotland as both the Highlands and the centre of the country saw strong winds.

The weather warning will move to the Orkney and Shetland Islands on Monday as the bad weather is pushed north-westerly towards northern Norway.