Overnight temperatures in Kent could drop close to freezing by the weekend – in a marked change to the recent hot weather.

October’s Indian summer looks set to come to a very abrupt end in the coming days, with all parts of the UK forecast to become significantly cooler by the end of the week.

While heavy rain is expected in southern areas on Thursday and Friday – daytime temperatures will remain around 20C with between 10C and 15C degrees forecast at night.

However by Saturday morning, says the Met Office, the air will feel considerably colder than it has done since the start of the month with the mercury expected to drop by around 10C during the day to a much cooler 13C.

Forecasters expect the nights to be significantly colder too with minimum temperatures on Saturday and Sunday a somewhat chilly 3C.

Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Brent Walker, said: “By the weekend we expect all regions of the UK to be in the cold air mass and overnight frosts are possible.

“With high pressure continuing to dominate our weather early next week, it will start largely fine, settled, and cool by day, with cold nights and a risk of rural air frosts in places. Any early morning mist or fog should clear quickly and there could be a few showers possible around some coasts at times.”

The weather across many parts of England has been ‘unseasonably hot’ for a number of days this month, says the Met Office, with one village in Kent recording the highest temperature in the UK for three days.

East Malling reached highs of 26.1C at the start of the week to set new records.

According to the Met Office, the last time the country saw three consecutive days of 25C at this time of year was in October 2011.