The Met Office has called it – Wednesday is the warmest day this year.
The mercury nudged 18.4C at Gravesend in the afternoon, beating 20 February, which chalked up 18.3C at Kew Gardens.
Temperatures had been predicted to reach up to 19C in places on Tuesday, making Britain as warm as Ibiza and warmer than Marrakech.
Sun worshippers are warned to take full advantage of the break in the gloom however as the remnants of Storm Stella, which has wreaked a snowy havoc on the United States, are due to hit the UK by Friday.
Stella brought 16 inches of snow to parts of Pennsylvania and around 8 inches to New York. Luckily, she’ll be bringing no such carnage across the pond – although we are in for some blustery and wet weather come the weekend. There could even be some snow over high ground in Scotland, but nothing to match the north American blizzards.
A Met Office spokesman said: “A strong jet stream is helping drive this unsettled weather our way. This is due in part to a big temperature contrast between areas of warm air and cold air in the United States at the moment.”
Thursday will start cloudy with outbreaks of rain and drizzle gradually moving south east, followed by sunshine and showers in the north.
By Friday, bands of rain will be pushing in from the west, with hill snow and patchy ice likely across Scotland.