March springs into record books

March was the sunniest month since 1929, and the warmest since 1997 according to forecasters

The highest maximum temperature recorded was 23.6 degrees in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, on March 27 which was a new Scottish record for March.

There was an average of 187 house of sunshine over England and Wales making it the sunniest March since 1929.

The only years to have a warmer March in the past 100 years were 1938, 1948, 1957, 1990 and 1997.

Paul Mott, senior forecaster at MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "The weather in March has been quite exceptional. There were a number Scottish records that were broken and some of the highest temperatures ever recorded in March."

"It was really in the last 10 days of March that the weather became really warm. The warm weather is due to an area of high pressure that is sat over the UK and in late March the sun starts to get stronger, providing a lot of daytime heating."

Mr Mott warned the warm weather will not extend into April.

"It has certainly got colder with more unsettled weather on the way," he said. "By Monday or Tuesday everywhere will notice the weather becoming much colder. There will be rain and even some snow by tomorrow night.

"In general this will just be over the hills in Scotland but also at a lower level. We are expecting 5-10 cm of snow in the hills and a light covering at a lower level in Scotland.

"I think we will be waiting quite a long time until we get another decent spell of warm weather like we have seen in the past 10 days."