A hailstorm swept London on Wednesday morning, sending temperatures plunging across the capital just as Sir Keir Starmer and Lady Victoria travelled from 10 Downing Street to the House of Lords for the State Opening of Parliament and were caught in it.
The Met Office said London would hover around 12C for much of Wednesday, a reading that put the city below Helsinki and Oslo despite both being farther north. Helsinki was forecast at 17C and Oslo at 15C, a reversal that made the cold snap stand out even in a month when London weather can turn quickly.
The weather has a direct effect on the day ahead. London was expected to reach 14C on Thursday and 15C on Friday before a warmer spell begins to build, with highs of 24C forecast from Thursday, May 21, to Saturday, May 23. Temperatures were also expected to stay above 20C into the following week, when many London schools enter May half-term.
That shift matters because the cold blast is short-lived, but the swing that follows is much more dramatic. London is moving from hail and 12C on Wednesday to a stretch of 20C-plus weather within days, a change that will be felt across commutes, classrooms and the streets around the city just as the school break begins. For anyone checking weather london today, the answer is clear: the capital starts the week colder than cities much farther north, then turns warm again before the end of it.
