EAST Lancashire basked in an Easter heatwave this weekend as the mercury soared, reaching highs of 22 degrees celcius.

And there was plenty to keep people entertained as hundreds flocked to the various events taking place across the region.

But as most people enjoyed the Easter sunshine, with Saturday becoming the warmest day of the year so far, firefighters tackled a wildfire in Foulridge.

At the height of the incident, 10 fire engines were in attendance as well as the wildfire specialist teams.

According to the Met Office, the dry, sunny and warm temperatures have brought high risk of wildfires in Yorkshire and North-West England, and a moderate likelihood for Wales and south-west England.

Forecaster Marco Petagna said: "We have got high pressure moving at the moment giving most of the UK a lot of fine weather, this combined with the fact that the high pressure has dominated for the past few days is allowing the temperatures to heat and build.

"It's allowing some record breaking temperatures to be set as we are looking at a high of 25 degrees celcius or 26 degrees celcius in some places on Monday."

He suggested that the temperatures may also be helped by the fact Easter has fallen a little later in the calendar this year as the later in the year Easter falls, the higher the sun is in the sky and the stronger it is.

But while the sunshine is set to stay with us until at least Tuesday, there are signs that things will start to turn cooler and more unsettled as the week progresses.

Temperatures will dip to 18 degrees by Wednesday, getting as low as 11 degrees by Saturday.

There's also a high chance of rain from Wednesday onwards.