UK weather: England facing snow as forecasters cast doubt on promised 'May heatwave'

There is no reason to believe a heatwave triggered by a “Beauty from the East” is coming to Britain in May, forecasters have said.

A number of media reports have claimed the UK is set for a 10-day stretch of unusually warm weather in mid-May, but the Met Office told The Independent the next 30 days look typical for this time of year.

“We never forecasted a heatwave,” Met Office spokeswoman Nicola Maxey said. “We’re looking at some fairly changeable weather as we go through May, some fairly typical weather for this time of year with temperatures if anything slightly below average.”

She added: “We’re expecting changeable weather, it doesn’t mean within that there won’t be warmer spells. I can’t tell you how long those spells will last.”

In fact, snow could even be on its way as far south as Sussex by the end of the weekend.

“We do have a low-pressure system crossing the UK on Sunday and into Monday that might bring some passing snow to the Chilterns and the South Downs,” Ms Maxey said.

The Met Office said much of the changeable weather – Britain saw its hottest April day in 70 years last week – was down to “the positioning of the jet stream and which side of it we end up”.

Aidan McGivern, a Met Office meteorologist, said the remainder of Thursday would see sunny spells and scattered showers. “It’s sunshine one minute, heavy downpours the next – even hail and thunder mixed in with some of the downpours,” he said.

Friday morning is set to be “tricky” for some commuters with wind and rain set to lash swathes of southern England.

“But for northern England, it’s not until late morning and lunchtime that we see the rain move in. And for the south-east corner, it could be much later in the day,” he said.