Enjoy it while you can... A bear eats ice cream in the sun

After a weekend of unbroken sunshine across the country, clouds gathered across parts of the north, putting an end to the nation's "ice cream weather".

Though temperatures are set to fall across the rest of the country later in the week, today the south of England continued to bake.

In Southampton, the mercury hit 24.6C in the late morning and 24.4C was recorded in London. The coldest part of the UK was Lerwick in the Shetland islands which was 6.6C at 11am.

Temperatures were expected to rise in the mid-afternoon heat, said a spokesman for MeteoGroup, the weather arm of the Press Association.

But the Mediterranean conditions are largely over. Forecaster Billy Payne said: "Unfortunately it is going to be turning cooler from the north across parts of the country with temperatures in the upper teens but in most places going down.

"It will be quite showery across the northern areas especially.

"Today is the last of the really hot days for now. There is no sign of the hot weather returning in the next 10 days with the temperatures close to normal for the time of year."

The fine weather in the capital is set to last for tonight's football friendly at Wembley where England welcome Mexico ahead of next month's World Cup in South Africa.

This weekend's weather saw UK temperatures outstrip many European holiday destinations such as Rome and Rhodes.

This year's crowd-drawing Chelsea Flower Show - which runs from tomorrow until Saturday - is likely to have average weather for this time of year with some sunny spells and a chance of showers.