Highs of 22C and sunny spells can be expected in Kent before a Monday washout, the BBC forecasts. Dartford and Gillingham are set to enjoy the warmest temperatures, while most other areas will see the mercury peak at 20C.
Dover and Folkestone will be slightly cooler at 18C this weekend. Heavy rainfall is expected in some areas today, while the BBC has issued a similar forecast for Monday.
A weather front from the Atlantic is becoming more dominant and bringing rain with it while it has been competing with a high pressure system bringing a North African plume.
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Looking at the national picture, BBC weather forecaster Ben Rich said: “Any more thunder and lightning in the outlook? Well for Friday this frontal system to the south east of us does look set to bring some heavy thundery rain but most of it will stay across the near continent, some perhaps fringing into south eastern parts of England.
“This band of rain pushing in from the west, this could generate the odd thunderstorm as it pushes eastwards during the day. And even where we see some sunshine a few heavy, possibly thundery downpours will pop up. Temperatures a little lower on Friday, 14C to 19C, that’s actually around the average for the time of year and it will be quite breezy.”
Met Office forecaster Aidan McGivern said the temperature could rise up to 24C on Sunday in some parts of southern England. “For northern England, sunshine and showers, by the afternoon but towards the south east corner, staying largely dry through Sunday with some sunny spells with temperatures a little higher than Saturday, 23C perhaps 24C in London,” he said.
“High teens elsewhere across England and Wales mid teens for Scotland and Northern Ireland.” This comes ahead of the Saharan dust cloud expected to hit Kent on Friday morning.
Scientists say higher than usual levels of dust are set to be transported across the Mediterranean and parts of Europe. The strange weather phenomena last occurred in March and left cars covered in dust.
Most of the dust transport is likely to be at higher altitudes which could lead to hazy skies rather than impacts on surface air quality. It may also be mixed with some rain, which is also forecast for Friday, so there could be surface deposits on cars after the rain has cleared,” Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist for the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service told the Daily Mail.
‘Blood rain’ results when red-coloured dust gets mixed into the rain, giving it a red appearance.
