UK on brink of hottest day of year with one part of England 'taking brunt'

James Rodger
·2-min read

The Met Office says the hottest day of the year is coming - with sweltering 26C highs expected by Saturday. The Saturday heatwave will see the UK swelter in highs in the mid-twenties - eclipsing the current 2024 record of 24C.

BBC Breakfast presenter Matt Taylor meanwhile said on Tuesday: "The sun is up here in London, heralding a bit of weather optimism for the rest of the week. The sunshine will be strong overhead with temperatures more widely in the mid 20s, and that story will continue all the way into the end of the week and the weekend.

"High pressure in charge so it means a lot of dry weather with the potential for a lovely Saturday." The hottest part of the country looks poised to be the south east, which looks set to swelter in the rising mercury as we head towards the weekend.

READ MORE UK tourists in Spain risk £5,000 fines over little-known '200 litre' water rule

James Madden, from Exacta Weather, said: "There is now strong and good cross-model agreement for a decent period of warm to hot weather conditions to develop over several days during NEXT WEEK, making our earlier projections for this period a now HIGH-CONFIDENCE outcome in terms of forecasting confidence for this warm to hot weather event to occur during next week and if not earlier."

He went on: "Additionally, an extra update also stated the following in reference to how the main third-party computer models would play up and how temperatures were being underestimated and could reach at least the mid-20's and re-register the hottest day of the year for a number of consecutive days for the period of this week/early May."

He added: "The third-party model projections will literally thrash out and mix up their outlooks for NEXT WEEK over the coming days before arriving at this period of MUCH WARMER temperatures at a point in the season when it can become MUCH WARMER due to seasonal strengths than current indications suggest.

"It is therefore plausible that once this pattern does take hold from NEXT WEEK and it is in full recognition from elsewhere, we could see temperatures rising into the MID to high 20's quite widely, at the very least within this developing period."

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • Northern Lights: Will you be able to see Aurora Borealis tonight in the UK?

    Meteorologists say the lights could be seen again in the UK sky

  • Warning in place for thunderstorms and 'intense' downpours

    Thunderstorms and ‘intense downpours’ could lead to disruption across the county, according to the Met Office

  • Europe hit by severe floods in the north and heatwaves in the south

    Heavy rainfall and storms wreak havoc across northern Italy, France and Germany, whilst southern Italy endures an unseasonal heatwave.View on euronews

  • UK set for 'three months' of 'heatwave after heatwave' this summer

    Weather forecasters and meteorologists have delivered their verdicts for the summer months ahead of the sixth month of the year, June, arriving next week.

  • ‘Red alert’ in Delhi after temperature soars to 47C as heatwave grips India’s north

    For second consecutive day on Sunday, parts of Delhi met heatwave conditions

  • 'Biblical rain' sparks floods in parts of UK amid Met Office storm warning

    The yellow weather warning is in place until 8pm tonight

  • Extreme weather blunts the US military's technological edge

    More extreme weather due to climate change is scrambling the high-tech systems that have given the US military its edge.

  • UK told to prepare for 'three months' of sunshine ahead of June and July scorcher

    This summer has a 35-per cent, 1.8 times the norm, chance of being hot, and a mere five per cent chance of being cool, according to the Met Office meteorologists and forecasters.

  • Weather: London to be battered by heavy rain as thunderstorm warning issued for southwest England

    Met Office issue yellow warnings for thunderstorms in parts of UK

  • UK to roast in heatwave from Caribbean with three parts of England hottest

    Forecasters from WXCharts and Netweather say the UK will see temperatures in excess of 22C between Thursday, May 30, and Sunday, June 2.

  • Hundreds of thousands still without power amid high temperatures after deadly storms in Houston area

    As officials assess the damage from destructive storms in the Houston area that killed at least seven people and knocked out power amid rising temperatures, residents in the Southeast and Gulf Coast face a severe weather threat through Saturday that could bring another round of excessive rainfall and severe thunderstorms.

  • Flash floods hit parts of Wales amid weather warning for thundery downpours

    'All of a sudden the water started coming through the doors. It happened within a few minutes'

  • UK faces 600 mile heatwave within days and hottest day of year 'under threat'

    The UK faces a staggering 600-mile heatwave as the next blast of hot weather hitting the country is confirmed before the end of May, the fifth month of the year.

  • 'Red alert' for Northern Lights issued for UK as Met Office shares best place to see them

    Conditions need to be ideal for the aurora to be viewed in parts of England - so getting a chance to see them is very rare

  • Northern Lights can be see in UK again TONIGHT with three places getting 'best view'

    A "red alert" has been issued - meaning aurora will be visible by eye and camera from anywhere in the UK but some towns and cities will get a better glimpse than others.

  • Parts of northern India scorched by extreme heat with New Delhi on alert

    Parts of northwest India sweltered under scorching temperatures on Saturday, with the capital New Delhi under a severe weather alert as extreme temperatures strike parts of the country. (AP video shot and produced by Shonal Ganguly, Rishi Lekhi and Rajanish Kakade)

  • BBC weatherman weatherman confirms the northern lights will be visible tonight in Scotland

    BBC Breakfast Aurora forecast for May 18/19

  • Parts of northern Europe clean up after floods

    German emergency workers on Saturday started a major clean-up after heavy rains triggered massive flooding, while parts of Belgium, the Netherlands and France were also affected.The southwestern German state of Saarland was the worst-hit region after a long downpour on Friday flooded buildings, left streets deep underwater and sparked evacuations, with boats carrying stranded residents to safety.Officials said it was the worst flooding in the area for nearly 30 years. The capital Saarbruecken was badly affected while dykes were breached in several areas, causing power to fail or be shut down as a precaution.No deaths were reported but at least one person was injured.Chancellor Olaf Scholz, visiting a village in the affected area, said that "we can see here what violence nature can cause and how much we have to constantly prepare for such events". He praised the work of emergency services in helping local residents and promised help for those affected by the disaster.Saarland state premier Anke Rehlinger said that authorities still did not have a complete picture of the damage but it was expected to be "considerable". The heavy rains had eased early on Saturday, however, and a severe weather warning for the area was lifted. There was also flooding in the German states of Rheinland-Palatinate, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hesse.About 850 workers from the federal relief agency were dispatched to Saarland to help tackle the floods, joining several thousand people in the state, many of them volunteers, the interior ministry said. Water rescue teams and extra fire-fighting units were sent in from other states, it said. - Worsening floods -Germany has faced worsening floods in recent years. In 2021, the regions of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia were hit by catastrophic floods that killed more than 180 people.In Belgium, the province of Liege was hit by severe flooding overnight into Saturday, with authorities receiving hundreds of requests for assistance and 150 firefighters deployed, governor Herve Jamar said.The main help provided by emergency services was pumping water out of flooded buildings, he said. In Les Fourons, northeast Belgium, the water was up to chest height in some houses, according to mayor Joris Gaens, quoted by Belga news agency. "These are the worst floods in the history of Les Fourons," he added. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo was due to visit on Saturday afternoon.In the Dutch province of Limburg, two campsites were evacuated early on Saturday as they were threatened by rising floodwaters, officials said. Meanwhile the Moselle area in France's northeast, which borders Saarland, was placed on flood alert with officials saying it received the equivalent of a month's rainfall in less than 24 hours.More than 1,000 firefighters were deployed to respond to the emergency but officials on Saturday said the situation was improving. Experts say climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of floods.German climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf said the floods in Saarland highlighted inadequate steps taken so far to fight global warming."People who do not take the warnings of climate researchers seriously for decades, and elect politicians who delay climate protection, should not be surprised about floods," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.sr/bc

  • Germany cleans up after massive floods

    German emergency workers were Saturday starting a major clean-up after heavy rains triggered massive flooding in the southwest of the country, while parts of Belgium and the Netherlands were also hit. The heavy rains had eased early Saturday, however, and a severe weather warning for the area was lifted. 

  • The Temperature Tip To Remember For Serving Soup Properly

    Serving soup is a bit of a Goldilocks game: You don't want it too hot or too cold. But there's a different just-right temperature for different soups.