Temperatures are set to rise this week across the country, with the chance of a record-breaking weekend.

It's a contrast to this time last year when 'The beast from the East' bought snow drifts of over a metre high which buried cars, street signs and even whole roads bringing the country to a halt.

This weekend temperatures will be almost 10 degrees higher than normal for this time of year, with a chance of matching the hottest day on record for February of 19.7C

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard:

Met Office chief meteorologist, Steve Willington, said: “By the weekend we could see temperatures almost 10 degrees higher than what we might normally expect at this time of year, so there will certainly be a spring-like feel in the air across the country.

The abnormal rise in temperature is down to a large area of high pressure centred over continental Europe that will extend across the UK this week, bringing increasingly settled conditions with dry and sunny weather.

Combined with milder, southerly winds, it means temperatures gradually rise day by day to around 15 to 18 °C for parts of the country on Friday and Saturday.

Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard: