UK weather maps burn red with heatwave and new 'hottest day of year' to hit

UK weather maps have roasted red in a scorching late May heatwave which kicks off just in time for half term. A new hottest day of the year could be recorded across the weekend of May 25 and May 26 as the UK sees the mercury rise to the mid-twenties - threatening the current benchmark of 25C.

London, Brighton, and parts of Kent will experience the best of the weather. In an update lasting from May 21 to May 30, the Met Office has hinted that temperatures could rise to "slightly above average" as the fifth month of the year ends.

In an update from May 31 into June, forecasters at the Met Office went on and said: "There is nothing to suggest that conditions will be massively different to climatology at the end of the current month and though the first half of June.

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"That said, both temperatures and rainfall are more-likely to be a little above average overall, with a fairly mixed bag seemingly most probable, with further rain or showers (possibly heavy/thundery at times) but also some spells of warm sunshine when it's not raining."

Looking ahead from May 27 to June, Netweather TV said: "Unsettled weather again looks likely to persist for much of the period, but as we head into June there is an increasing chance of the jet stream shifting further north and high pressure building from the south, resulting in an increasing chance of some predominantly warm dry sunny weather affecting the south and east of Britain, with the more unsettled conditions becoming more concentrated in north-western Britain.

"Overall, it is thus likely to be wetter than average in the north of Britain, with near average rainfall more likely for the south, and sunshine is most likely to be near or slightly below normal for most of the country. Temperatures will probably not be far from the long-term normal, with indications that we may lose the predominantly southerly winds, although for eastern England it is likely to be warmer than normal."