An early taste of SUMMER; Expect a sunny Bank Holiday weekend.

Byline: JONNY GREATREX

MIDLAND families are enjoying a sun-kissed Bank Holiday with temperatures climbing up to 20 degrees centigrade and higher.

And forecasters are predicting that tomorrow will be bright and warm too.

"Sunday in the Midlands will be a glorious day, it will be mostly dry and sunny if a little chilly first thing," a Met Office spokesman.

"We expect temperatures to be about 20C, which is 68F, so it will be a really nice day.

"Monday will be dry as well and clear most of the day.

"There is a possibility of cloud later on but, on the whole, it should be beautiful weather." Thousands of tourists embarked on the traditional Bank Holiday getaway on Friday, with airports in the region seeing an increase in passenger numbers.

On the railways, bus replacements have been introduced on a number of routes until Tuesday, as dozens of engineering projects are undertaken.

Today is likely to be the worst day for train journeys as there are 38 separate engineering work projects taking place.

These include disruptions for passengers on the West Coast Main Line, where a pounds 9 billion upgrade was completed last December.

They will have to travel on buses between Milton Keynes Central in Buckinghamshire and Birmingham International stations.

Among companies having to run buses instead of trains today - and at other times over the bank holiday weekend - are SWT, Arriva Trains Wales, First Capital Connect, Northern Rail and the Southern train company.

Brighton is the most popular seaside destination as far as drivers are concerned this weekend, according to a leading motoring organisation.

AA Route Planner said it expected to generate more than 40,000 routes for people driving to the south coast city this weekend, and a further 20,000 for Blackpool, 17,000 for Bournemouth and 13,000 for Newquay.

Plenty of people are also heading to town and city attractions.

The AA said they produced 18,000 routes to Edinburgh, 15,000 for Oxford, 13,500 for York and 10,000 for Bath.

An AA spokesman said: "The percentage of people heading for the coast this weekend is higher than for the Bank Holiday at the beginning of May.

"No doubt this is partly due to the expectation of nicer weather, but also due to the fact that it is the beginning of half-term week for many schools."

And holiday company Travel Counsellors reported travel abroad was busy too.

They said medium-haul destinations, such as Egypt and Dubai, were popular destinations this year, as well as the traditional favourites Majorca, Portugal and Turkey.

Travel organisation Abta said Florida was among popular longhaul destinations, while the top five overseas city-break spots were Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Rome and New York.

jonny.greatrex@ sundaymercury.net

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