AFTER the coldest start to March for 34 years, temperatures are soaring across Britain and a glorious weekend is in prospect.

As recently as Sunday, blizzards raged across northern Scotland and most of the UK was in the grip of biting winds that held temperatures to a chilly 7C (45F).

The sudden shift is caused by a pocket of high pressure anchored off the West Coast of Ireland, drifting south and settling over France.

Instead of driving fierce northerly winds down through the country, this continental high is now bathing us in warm breezes from the Atlantic and North Africa, the Met Office said yesterday.

By Tuesday night it was so warm that for the first time in six weeks no frost appeared anywhere in Britain. On Wednesday temperatures reached almost 20C (68F) at Gravesend, in Kent — 10C above the normal high.

The record March temperature of 25C, set in 1965 and 1968, is unlikely to be beaten but London could reach 18C today, hotter than Los Angeles, Barcelona and Jerusalem.

For most of the country, Saturday and Sunday are expected to be “lovely”, according to Anton Muscat, the duty forecaster at the Met Office. Some coastal areas can expect to be quite wet and cloudy, and there is a risk of flooding in some Highland areas of Scotland because of heavy rain and thawing snow.

The period from mid-February to mid-March was the coldest since 1987, and the first week of March was the coldest since 1971. But Britain came off lightly compared with most of Europe. March 3 had the coldest March temperature on record in the Netherlands, plunging to -20C (-5F), and Switzerland experienced a low of -34C (-29F) in the border region next to France.

Southern Europe is now enjoying a remarkable heatwave. On Wednesday, Bilbao, in northern Spain, reached 28C (82F), and Biarritz, in southwest France, climbed to 25C (77F).

With fine weather across the Continent the first cuckoos could arrive as early as next week, according to Jill Attenborough, of the Woodland Trust. “They tend to come in late March or early April but if the weather holds we can expect them soon.” she said.

The first brimstone and comma butterflies in the UK were reported yesterday, and on Wednesday the earliest sycamore buds burst.

“We’ve also just had the first wood anemones flowering,” Ms Attenborough said. “They have beautiful white petals and grow in the same ancient woodlands where bluebells will appear in around a month’s time.”

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