Met Office: Temperatures reached 17.3 degrees in Cumbria

Kicking off on February 24 last year, the Beast from the East brought with it more than 10 days of snow, school closures and treacherous driving conditions.

Fast forward 12 months and a real spring feel can be felt in Cumbria, with flowers beginning to blossom and the sun beginning to shine. Yesterday temperatures reached the mid to high teens throughout Cumbria, with Warcop - between Brough and Appleby - seeing highs of 17.3 degrees at 3pm.

In Carlisle the warmest temperature came at 1pm, when 14.5 degree sun could be felt in the city. Keswick saw highs of 15.5 degrees, with those temperatures coming at 12pm and 1pm.

Shap, meanwhile, was very similar to Keswick - it recorded a high temperature of 15.4 degrees at 2pm.

Normally colder than its Cumbrian counterparts, the temperature at the Spadeadam weather station recorded a high temperature of 16.5 degrees at 1pm. It was slightly cooler however, in St. Bees Head, as temperatures reached as high as 12.7 degrees at 10am.

In Wales, temperatures rose above 20 degrees, in what the Met Office says is the warmest winter day on record.

The thermometer reached 20.6 degrees at Trawsgoed in Ceredigion, west Wales, the highest recorded in February and beating the previous record of 19.7 degrees in Greenwich in 1998.

It is also the earliest recording of an above 20 degrees temperature in a calendar year, since 20.2 degrees was recorded at Exeter Airport on March 2 1977.

The Met Office said the warm temperatures were “exceptional” for the time of year, while Green MP Caroline Lucas linked the weather to “climate breakdown”.

The conditions were the result of warm air combining with a period of sunshine across the UK, resulting in higher temperatures, said the forecaster.

Warm spells are set to continue today and Wednesday but it will become less mild and more unsettled from Thursday, with some heavy showers possible, the Met Office added.