Britons could be set to soak up temperatures in the 20Cs in the coming days, before rain and thundery showers take over.

If you have not had your first BBQ of the year yet, then Saturday may be the time to change this amid the widespread warm sunshine.

Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern suggests it could be “16-19C widely – with 24C the possible high in the South East and that would make it the warmest day of the year so far”.

He also said “that warm air as it arrives is likely to spark a few heavy showers”.

He said: “By Saturday evening, those showers would be making an appearance into the South West, spreading quite widely into southern parts of England and south wales.

“In some places, it would just be a spell of rain but for central and southern England and the south coast there is the risk of some heavy downpours, thunderstorms and frequent lightning.”

This all comes after a cool start to the day on Saturday which is followed by temperature rises and spells of rain that may hit the far north west of Scotland.

It is looking like “a fine afternoon”, according to Mr McGivern – who described the prospect of “sunshine up and down” from the north of Scotland to the south of England, with just some patchy cloud in the north and west.

Sunday is looking like another warm day.

The Met Office says that warm air originally from North Africa will bring above average temperatures for May to most places in the UK over the next week, but it will be broken up with potentially heavy or thundery showers.

Parts of the South East could potentially reach top temperatures for the week of 25C-27C.

Met Offices spokesman Richard Miles said “at the moment Tuesday looks like being the warmest day of the week”.

Throughout the week, some people may be able to enjoy the warm dry sunny spells, but heavy showers are set to move across the whole of the country, particularly in the north and west.

These might be thundery at times in parts of the south, central England and south-west Scotland.

Met Office chief meteorologist Andy Page said: “The plume of warm air we have been expecting from the south will bring higher temperatures across the whole country over the next week.

“However, it looks like the effects from the Atlantic lows will prevent sustained high pressure building from the east.

“This means that while we might see some warm – and in places very warm – days, overall the next week will feel more like what we would expect of a warm spell in May, with some heavy showers around, rather than hot summery weather.”