Snow set to return at Easter after 18C warm weather spell, Met Office warns

"In fact, it's more likely we will get snow in March than in December."

He added: "I can see the weather system that is causing the excitement, but it’s too far away and too uncertain to have any indication yet.

"It is unlikely to see an easterly weather front coming across, but a white Easter is more likely than a white Christmas."

It comes after Brits basked in sunshine on the hottest day of the year so far yesterday - just weeks after the country was battered with snow, wind and torrential rain.

Temperatures hit 18C on Wednesday, making parts of the UK hotter than Madrid.

Forecasters said it the weather showed "the first signs of spring", with some places experiencing weather more like May than February.

Met Office spokesman Oli Claydon said it was a "noticeable change from what we've had in recent weeks".

Today it is mostly dry with sunny spells across much of the UK, but with some "blustery showers" in the northwest.

Top temperatures so far are in Cardiff where it reached 13.3C at lunchtime, according to the Met Office.

It will be a dry night which could bring "widespread frost and isolated fog patches".

And more sunshine is predicted for the end of the working week, with sunshine and mild temperatures again reaching up to 15C across the UK.

Mr Claydon said: "It will feel more like spring, especially in the sunshine."

The unseasonably warm weather is the result of air being blown up from north Africa and Spain, forecasters have said.

BBC forecaster Chris Fawkes said: "The weather in the UK has gone from something like being stuck in a deep freezer to something unusually warm.

"With air coming up from north Africa and Spain across England and Wales that's where the temperatures are at their most unusual.

"Temperatures will probably reach 18C across parts of east of England which is very unusual for February." 

Only two weeks ago a big freeze sparked travel chaos and banks of snow were said to be 70cm tall in some areas, or waist-deep.

Temperatures plunged to -23C, making it the coldest night in 26 years.

The cold snap even saw the River Thames freeze over for the first time in 60 years as the Beast from the East 2 continued to blast Britain.