- Temperatures reached 35°C in London, making it the hottest May day on record in England and Wales.
- Amber heat-health alerts across several English regions have been extended until Thursday evening.
- The UK also recorded its hottest May night after temperatures stayed above 21C overnight.
Amber heat-health warnings across England have been extended for another 24 hours after the UK recorded its hottest May temperatures on record, with thermometers climbing to 35C in parts of London.
According to the Met Office, temperatures provisionally reached 35C at Heathrow and Kew Gardens on May 27, while Cardiff’s Bute Park recorded 32.9°C, making it the hottest May day ever recorded in both England and Wales.
The latest figures came just a day after the UK registered its provisional highest meteorological spring temperature of 34.8°C at Kew Gardens.
The extreme conditions have prompted the UK Health Security Agency to extend amber heat-health alerts across London, the South East, South West, East Midlands, West Midlands and eastern England until 5pm on Thursday May 29. Yellow alerts remain active in the North West and North East.
The South West warning was also upgraded from yellow to amber as forecasters warned the heatwave could continue placing pressure on health services and vulnerable groups.
Britain records hottest May night on record
The unusually high daytime temperatures have also carried through overnight, creating what meteorologists describe as a “tropical night” — when temperatures remain above 20°C.
Parts of southern England reportedly stayed above 21.3C overnight, breaking the previous May overnight temperature record set only a day earlier at Kenley Airfield, where temperatures had not dropped below 19.4°C.
Forecasters said there was still a possibility of further tropical nights in southern England and Wales as the heat lingers through the week.
The Met Office said 12 separate locations across England broke local May temperature records on May 26, while 97 monitoring stations recorded temperatures of at least 30°C.
But the heatwave has also created unstable weather conditions in some areas.
Thunderstorm warnings covering parts of the South West, Midlands and eastern England warned of lightning, hail, gusty winds and sudden heavy rain, with some areas potentially seeing 30mm of rainfall in under an hour.
Heat expected to shift across the country
Although temperatures are expected to ease slightly, forecasters say the unusually warm conditions are far from over.
Andy Page reportedly described the current spell as “exceptional” late-spring heat and warned that very warm nights were likely to continue in southern parts of the country over the coming days.
The highest temperatures are expected to move westwards on May 28 before warmer conditions spread further north later in the week.
The heatwave has arrived after a dramatic shift in weather conditions earlier this month, when parts of Scotland recorded temperatures as low as -5°C before the UK rapidly swung into near-record heat.
Scientists and climate researchers have increasingly warned that record-breaking heat events in the UK are becoming more frequent as global temperatures rise.
