In the past week, temperatures in the UK have soared much higher than the average for March with what experts are calling a ‘mini heatwave’. 

During the week, temperatures reached highs of 20°C in London, with most days having an average temperature of around 17 to 19° during the peak of the day. Since March usually has an average high of 10° and an average low of 3°, these kinds of warm extremes are considered highly unusual for the time of year. Along with these warm temperatures, most days were seen to have blue skies and with little to no wind. 

Knowing the rarity of such lovely weather during this time of year, many Londoners made the most of it and took to local outdoor spaces to enjoy the sun, blue skies and unusually warm weather while it lasted. Pictured above, Richmond Green in Southwest London received many visitors throughout the week. Activities varied from picnics, late afternoon drinks and a few could even be spotted sunbathing. Georgia Sitara is a school student who visited the green on Monday and said that “the weather brought back those much missed summer vibes” and that the sun and warmth was making it “start to feel like the start of September once more”. Many more students were seen visiting after school making both this weekend and the week’s workday afternoons very busy for both Richmond town and its green spaces.

The shops in the area certainly benefitted from the warm weather too, with it bringing out many more visitors to Richmond’s shops, restaurants and other outdoor spaces (including Richmond Park and the riverside). Just like the green, the streets of one of Richmond’s ice cream shops, Venchi, was particularly busy and was seen to have visitors queueing out the door to have a cooling scoop of ice-cream or sorbet. 

While the weather forecasters only expect to last a week with temperatures returning to normal this week, there is still hope for another early dose of warm weather this April to keep us going until summer holidays. Some parts of the UK are expected to see a heatwave next month with temperatures potentially rising to 28°C. Temperatures usually reach a daily high of around 12°C in April and a low of 4°C, but this year the high could be even more unexpected than the most recent bout of warm weather. 

While these spikes of warm weather are certainly lovely in comparison the usually brisk spring temperatures of the UK, it is important not to ignore why these are happening: global warming. As climate change and global warming continue to get worse and become even more of a problem, extreme weather events are becoming more and more common resultantly overshadowing the enjoyment of such unusually nice weather.