AFTER a bank holiday break filled with blue skies and fun in the sun, the warm weather is set to continue with temperatures soaring as we head into the weekend.

Despite fears the fine weather will be followed by a typically British cold spell, Worcester News weatherman Paul Damari said it will remain dry and warm and he expects temperatures to rise before peaking on Friday and Saturday. "It's gradually warming up," he said.

"There will be light winds and a great deal of fine weather and it will be much warmer than average with temperatures getting up to 20C, which is 68F.

"It's unusually warm to what we should be getting."

He said average temperatures for this time of year are about 12C, which is 53F.

"Our springs are very fickle." he said. Some springs the temperature goes up and comes back down again very quickly but it's been fairly constant over the past few weeks.

"But after the mildest winter we have ever had on record in some places we are seeing a continuation of milder and warmer than average temperatures. It's superb."

He said the main reason why we are experiencing consistently warm and dry weather is because of a band of high pressure lingering over the UK.

"That's helping to divert any bad weather systems away from us," he said.

"Spain is getting it much worse than us at the moment."

As a result, Mr Damari said temperatures could rise even more this spring with temperatures ranging consistently between 21C (70F) and 26C (80F). "It's not bad at all," he said. "Everybody can enjoy it. Everything is drying out nicely on the ground now so that's good for the farmers. It's nice weather all the way."

However, he did warn the good weather will eventually come to an end.

"I'm looking at a number of thunderstorms in the first part of May," he said.

"There's a lot of pressure coming up from France."