A hailstorm swept London on Wednesday morning, sending temperatures plunging across the capital and catching Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his wife, Lady Victoria, in the blast of ice as they made their way from 10 Downing Street to the House of Lords for the State Opening of Parliament.
Londoners quickly shared video of hail pounding pavements and gardens, turning an ordinary spring morning into a brief burst of winter weather. The Met Office said temperatures were set to hover around 12C throughout much of Wednesday, with the capital expected to stay cold for the rest of the week.
The contrast was stark. While London sat under grey skies and hail, the Met Office predicted 17C in Helsinki and 15C in Oslo on Wednesday, underscoring how unusually chilly the UK capital felt by comparison. For a city that has already been waiting for warmer days, the timing landed hard: a cold spell in mid-May is one thing, but one that arrives on a day when the country’s political business is moving through Westminster gives it more bite.
Thursday is expected to bring only a modest improvement, with a high of 14C forecast for London, followed by 15C on Friday. Weather, however, painted a much warmer picture from Thursday, May 21, to Saturday, May 23, when it reported highs of 24C and said temperatures would stay above 20C into the following week, which is May half-term for many London schools.
That creates the week’s central tension: a city shivering through hail and 12C now, but facing the possibility of a sharp turn into early-summer warmth just days later. For Londoners watching the weather from their phones, the question is no longer whether the cold snap is real. It is how long they have to wait before the sun finally catches up.
