SUFFOLK: Cold and cloudy July passed us by with barely a whimper.

But glorious sunshine and soaring temperatures combined to ensure August made a much grander entrance.

Music fans endured a torrid weekend of weather at Suffolk’s Latitude Festival last month. But the mercury has risen significantly since - with forecasters predicting highs of a balmy 27C this week.

The warmth in Suffolk has outshone a host of traditional summer holiday hot spots.

And the climbing temperatures will come as a major boost to attractions across the county, which will benefit from the fantastic Mediterranean conditions.

Youngsters enjoying their school holidays are also enjoying the upturn in conditions.

Forecasters are expecting readings well above the average for this time of the year, with the heat expected to peak tomorrow afternoon.

However, the sunshine may come at a cost with stormy showers also set to arrive over the latter part of the week.

Chris Bell, a forecaster at Norwich-based experts Weatherquest, said the start of the new month yesterday marked the beginning of a warm spell triggered by air coming up from southern Europe.

He said: “We can expect to see temperatures above average, into the mid-twenties. Wednesday will be the warmest, most likely.

“The average for the time of year is about 21C, so we are about 6C above that.

“Most years you get to 30C once or twice but this will be one of the warmer spells we have had.

“The thing that may be a drawback is that we are likely to see some showers by Wednesday as well and these could be thundery showers.”

He said the current spell of weather was caused by an area of high pressure coming up from southern Europe, funnelling warm air up in a “clockwise fashion”.

See www.eveningstar.co.uk for a full five-day forecast for your part of the region.

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n Opinion – page 6