Kent looks to be on course for the sunniest spring in more than 90 years.

With blue skies and temperatures in the low to mid-20s set to remain for the rest of the week, it appears this year will be the best since records began way back in 1929.

According to the Met Office, we have enjoyed more than 686 hours of sunshine in the last three months - that's 39% above average.

And with the season not ending until Sunday, the last day of May, it looks like the record set in 1990 will be beaten.

Just over 30 years ago, 691.1 hours of sunshine was recorded in the county, and 2020 has already surpassed the second best year which was 2011 when we basked in 637.9 hours of sunshine.

Forecasters says it's all down to high pressure which has been a dominant weather feature for much of the spring period, leading to long spells of dry and settled weather for most of the country.

That good weather will continue for the rest of this week and over the weekend.

While the dry and bright conditions have probably been welcomed by parents with children off school during lockdown, it might not have been such good news for gardeners looking to maintain their spring blooms.

Rainfall levels are significantly down on what's normally expected for this time of year.

Since the start of March, Kent has only had 60% of the average rainfall we would normally get during the season with a mere 87.5mm.

But that's nowhere near as dry as it has been in the past - the driest spring was in 2011 when only 30mm of rain fell in the county.

While the good weather has enabled us to get out for our daily exercise, it has also led to many heading to the coast in recent days and causing concerns over rubbish and breaking social distancing guidelines.

Luke Miall, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said the decent weather looks set to continue: "It does look like as we go into the beginning of summer we are going to continue to see this fine weather, certainly for the first few days of June.

"There are some signs that we are looking at some spells of high pressure throughout the month of June as well, so that does give us the suggestion that we could see some further fine and fairly warm weather.

"But, looking further ahead there is still the potential that we could see more unsettled spells of weather at times, so this particular event can’t be directly related to the summer weather events that we’ll see."

Despite below average rainfall he doesn't think gardeners need to be worried about the prospect of a hosepipe ban any time soon. He added: "We had a very wet autumn and winter and that’s the period of time when we usually see the re-charge to our rivers and reservoirs, so because of that period there isn’t too much concern at the moment despite the fact we’ve had a fairly dry three months.

"I think if this dry weather were to continue through the summer and into next autumn then there may be more concerns later on but at this stage we’re just seeing a kind of swing really, we’ve gone from very wet to very dry so it’s almost averaging out at the moment."

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