IT'S time to slip on your shorts, slap on the sunscreen, and get out and enjoy what promises to be a beautiful sunny weekend.Tourist attractions and events are bracing themselves for big crowds over the Bank Holiday - with temperatures set to be well above the seasonal average.

IT'S time to slip on your shorts, slap on the sunscreen, and get out and enjoy what promises to be a beautiful sunny weekend.

Tourist attractions and events are bracing themselves for big crowds over the Bank Holiday - with temperatures set to be well above the seasonal average.

Following a record-breaking April, Suffolk was today enjoying its 33rd warm day in a row with no immediate sign of change.

Nationally, weathermen say it is “odds on for a barbecue summer” with their long-range forecast indicating many days of more than 30C to come.

Members of the East Suffolk Morris Men heralded the summer with their traditional May Day dance at sunrise at Clifflands, Old Felixstowe.

Evening Star weatherman Ken Blowers said there were 188 hours of sunshine in April compared with the usual average for the month of 145 hours.

“The number of sunshine hours was extremely high and it was an exceptional month - I think once the totals are all in we shall find it broke all records,” said Mr Blowers.

Rainfall was down, too - with only half an inch in the 30 days, about 30 per cent of the usual total.

Mr Blowers said the outlook was good for the weekend and its big events, including Ipswich Town's last match of the season, the May Day festival at Alexandra Park, the Ipswich-Felixstowe Historic Vehicle Run and Woodbridge Horse Show.

“High pressure is controlling our weather at the moment so it will be a warm and dry weekend - average temperature for May is 17C (62F) and we should reach that and perhaps higher,” he said.

“We are in a prolonged spell of warm weather - abnormally warm for mid-spring.”

Temperatures across the UK are likely to be warmer than average and rainfall near or below average for the three months of summer.

Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office Ewen McCallum said: “After two disappointingly-wet summers, the signs are much more promising this year. We can expect times when temperatures will be above 30C, something we hardly saw at all last year.”

There will still be heavy downpours at times. However, a repeat of the wet summers of 2007 and 2008 is unlikely.

Do you enjoy warm weather or prefer a cooler climate? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk