The Met Office has had its say on rumours the UK is heading into a heatwave, saying we could well see unusually hot weather, but throwing cold water on claims that we will get a heatwave. The forecasters say temperatures look set to be well above what we would normally see in June – but the hot spell will be shortlived and may not carry on into the weekend.
The forecast reads: “From Wednesday onwards while cloud, rain and breezy conditions continue across the northwest, it will become increasingly warm in the south as high pressure builds. This will bring settled conditions allowing temperatures to build day-on-day and for it to become warm, or even hot, for a time by Friday.”
Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Dan Rudman, said: “Temperatures will rise through the week, becoming well above-average by day by Friday when many parts of the southern half of the UK are likely to reach 30C or even 33C in isolated spots.
“This is the first spell of hot weather this year and it is still unusual for the temperature to exceed these values in June. Many areas will also see some warm nights with temperatures expected to be in the mid to high teens overnight.”
A UK heatwave threshold is met when a location records a period of at least three consecutive days with daily maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding the heatwave temperature threshold. The threshold varies by UK county.
A Met Office spokesman said: “Although some parts of England may perhaps meet these heat wave criteria it looks like this spell of warm weather will be relatively short-lived. Milder conditions look likely to return later in the weekend with temperatures trending back to around average for June as we see cooler air push across the country from the northwest.
“The highest temperature reached in the UK so far this year is 27.5C at Heathrow on May 17. It is still relatively unusual for temperature to reach the mid 30C’s in June and you have to go back to 1976 for the highest recorded June UK temperature (records date from 1884). 35.6C was reached at Southampton Mayflower Park on 28th June 1976.”