The Met Office has issued a long-range forecast predicting a miserable last two weeks of March, with the period set to be dominated by rain.
Recent days have seen a mix of conditions in the UK, with sunny spells seen on Saturday, widespread rain on Sunday, and now general cloud cover across the country.
Recent weather forecasts and conditions shown on new maps have suggested the generally gloomy trend will only continue to deteriorate.
Between the coming weekend and the end of the month, the most accurate forecasts make constant mention of rain.
The Met Office has warned that thunderstorms and heavy rain could lash at the UK until March 24.
The agency’s latest long-range forecast covers March 15 to 24, a nine-day period during which meteorologists expect vicious rain systems to continually batter the country.
The forecast states that spells of rain could become heavy, with the first showers developing over northern parts of the country.
The Met Office said: “From the end of the week a broadly unsettled pattern continues.
“Friday likely seeing longer spells of rain clearing northern areas whilst showers, sometimes heavy with thunderstorms developing elsewhere, though some brighter spells at times and clearing skies overnight.”
The forecast adds that, while the rain will fall heavily, temperatures won’t prove quite so extreme.
The mercury will feel mild “outside fresh winds”, it continued, with more rain to follow in southern England over the weekend of March 22 and 23.
It adds: “Through the weekend further bands of rain are expected to push in from the west and southwest, breaking to showers at times.”
“Into the new week temperatures trend down toward average for the time of year as the broadly unsettled pattern continues with periods of rain, heaviest in western areas, push across the country to be followed by occasional showers, with a risk of thunderstorms mainly in the south.”
Weather maps show that rainfall over the next two weeks will fall heaviest on the coast, with most systems arriving on the west coast from the Atlantic Ocean.
The same charts show temperatures sticking around the March average, between 10C and 14C until the end of the month, although forecasts looking this far ahead can be subject to change.
