Derp Patrol

Look at Heathrow.... 38 degrees is on there!!!! Incredible!!

Give over, you guys have been spoilt the past few years haha

Wow WHAT a good set of charts we have tonight!! We have waited a long time for this, it's been 7 long years waiting, but this summer is turning into a very memorable one, with no end in sight! The potential for high temperatures next week is very exciting, I would still not bet on the record being broken, but perhaps the July record of 36.5C could be under threat? Considering 38.5C happened on August 13 2003, we would be a few weeks earlier, meaning a stronger sun, longer daylight hours so the potential could in theory be better for beating it, if we can bring in 20C+ uppers!! At the moment it is still a week away, but if we do have uppers of 20C touching southern UK - I would bet on temperatures reaching at least 35-37C somewhere! It's been a long time waiting, but finally we have a proper summer!

Sorry maybe it's just me.. I have a high heat threshold and probably am less affected by extremes than other people - I will wear a T shirt at 13 degrees and will be fine if it is 30+ degrees.. maybe it just seems weird for me to find people calling 26C too hot.. but each to their own! The ECM tonight is showing a potential scorcher next week.. uppers of 20C only a couple of hundred miles from our shores.. which would bring the potential for mid-high 30s... and of course lots of storms! But it's still over a week away

It's true they do try and cover both opinions, except for one female BBC weather presenter (I forget the name) who was saying how hot and unpleasant it would be one day when the temperatures were just 26C - I mean for some people yes that is too warm but really? It's sometimes nice having a personality to a weather forecast (Rob McElwee eg) when they present unbiased opinions, but I think I sometimes prefer European forecasts where they just show a map and read out the temperatures/conditions instead of all this 'It's going to be a very hot day, unpleasant for sleeping (when lows are just in the mid teens), stay indoors etc. Our weather is tame to the majority of the population on this planet - southern Europeans would laugh at us calling 26C too hot!

I do like it as well! It's good because i'm finished for uni until September so I have been in the garden and out and about enjoying it! I can understand working in it might not be so nice though. Up in Norwich where I live in term time we get some quite cool nights, whereas here we do retain heat a lot more as you said thanks to more buildings/concrete! 26.8c Is still a nice temperature to sit outside in the evening though, perfect without the heat of the sun on you as well!

My forecast low for tonight is 20C.. last night was the same and I woke up very hot. However it is nice as it means the temperature stays high and allows me to stay outside in shorts. At the moment it is still 28C!!!!!!!

That's true.. although I think that our climate has definitely changed since then, albeit by a couple of degrees at most. Since 2003 we have broken record max temps for January,July, August, October. We definitely live in a much warmer place now, and bar the last 6 summers (some have been ok here, although definitely not everywhere) I think that trend will continue

It will go nowhere near beating 2006.. 2006 was what we are seeing now, but increase temperatures by about 5 degrees. I remember 2006 seeing temperatures above 32C for weeks, whereas during this spell, that has been the max temperature so far. In 2006 my average max temp here for July was 28.5C ! But nevertheless it will beat quite a few as that was an exceptional month. I'm not saying that spells like this were common, but prior to 2007 it was quite common to have 2 week spells of high pressure over the UK. Since 2006 it has only been the south east who have had weather like this. This spell is notable for length of it, but nothing more really. Temperatures in the high 20s are to be expected at some point in each summer month.

The last 6 years have been a bit of an anomaly in terms of our climate. Prior to 2007, spells like this is summer were much more common

Well the past few days have reached 30C here so technically we are in a heatwave, although i'm not sure about minima, the classification is for lows of 18C here but we've verged between 16-20C. Out of interest does anyone know where you can find sunshine hours stats? I'm pretty sure that we must be close to 200 hours this month already here! I haven't had rain here since I returned from uni on June 23rd!!

I understand this.. but according to the BBC the 'heatwave' has been 11 days long now.. whereas most areas have had a blip in temperatures at some point. Yes there have been a few days where it could be termed as a heatwave, but I think that the BBC is misleading when it says 'heatwave to continue' when only certain areas are currently in heatwave conditions. Nevertheless, just a small rant! Last night was a very warm one here, it was 23C at midnight here so it can't have gone below 20C, the first very warm night of the year where I found it hard to sleep... I woke up very stick and sweaty - not nice! Looking at the models and it doesn't seem like there's an end in sight to this spell - the GFS keeps 10c uppers over southern UK practically the entire run, it will be into August until any possibility of change I would think - I'm not complaining!

What I find annoying is the news reporters and weather presenters wrongly calling this a heatwave, and also making it sound as though this is living hell. Temperatures in the high 20s are not heatwave conditions! (except for the far north) and I have acclimatised perfectly to this weather, in fact it is 30C right now and it feels quite pleasant. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23325078 Also to misleading articles like this - I have been living in London all my life and I can say with conviction that in the summer months the grass in London parks is normally brown - not the 'lush green' that this reporter seems to have made an image of in his fairytale world.

To be honest, I don't really care if some people don't like this weather (sorry) I have to put up with people every winter wishing for freezing cold conditions that I hate and in recent years they have been lucky, whereas we have been less lucky in summer. In Winter cold conditions just make getting about even harder.. Winter in the UK is never a time of the year to go outside, but it makes it worse. Whereas in summer warmer weather allows for us to be outside more. Everyone I know also supports this view, this forum is not representative of the UK population IMO

I'm lucky that I tan instead of burn, and this past week I have developed a dark tan, so much so that now if I stay outside from 11-3pm I can't tell that i've turned any darker

This spell has been brilliant. I just looked on BBC for Heathrow (my nearest weather station) and I haven't seen a forecast like this since 2006! It's not often that you see a forecast here with 30 degrees every day http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/7284876 30 degrees for all the next 5 days forecast with lows of 18-19C. From Friday onwards it suggests temperatures could be as high as 33/34 each day! IMO this has been a long time waiting, the past few years eastern Europe in particular Russia has been spoilt with months of conditions like we are having now, maybe this year it's our turn

Yeah, just need some 15C+ uppers and 35C would be on the cards. 20C uppers and we could be talking 40C

Indeed! If we are still in a similar position next week then it will be good news! (for most of us) My lawn is starting to look like it did during the 90s and early 00s - brown and dead. Walking about and it looks the same everywhere, definitely a proper summer feel to the country!

We've been overdue a decent July, and whilst this won't go down anywhere near one of the hottest (July 2006 average max temp was about 28C here) It is definitely notable due to the length of it. This could last into August and potentially beyond. From next weekend onwards as the high shifts further east this could allow us to tap onto some real heat, possible temps of 35C perhaps if we can get right positioning of the high (this is a big if) We haven't seen above 33C since 2006 so it would be interesting to see if we could reach the mid 30s again, we have dry and warm ground to provide the basis for it, and I believe the record for July stands at 36.5C which isn't all too high considering the record for August is 38.5C, 2C higher. Of course this is all just fantasy, but nice to think about!

32C for central southern and south eastern spots on Saturday I expect... the first proper hot weather of the year is on the cards! We could possibly achieve 30C for 7 days in a row, not seen since 2006 here. Although I think in 2010 around Wimbledon time there was a 2 week spell where we hit 30C 4 or 5 days in a row and had +26C for 2 weeks. Generally though the last few years we have struggled to have more than 2 or 3 days in a row of temperatures above 30C, I'm hoping next week will change this!

Average max so far here this month has been 26.9C so about 3C above average

This is a very nice spell of weather. The last few years have brought the coldies back proclaiming that our summers will become worse and worse based on only a few years of below average summers. In fact spells like this used to be pretty common prior to 2007, it is noteworthy because of the poor summers in the last 6 years, but really we used to have many summers where high pressure would sit over the UK for prolonged periods bringing warm and sunny weather without the heat, as we are seeing now!

Anything below 20C and I keep my windows shut.. I have to agree with Bottlesford here it is too cool below that temperature.

Was warming up nicely here until cloud came a couple of hours ago, there are breaks in the cloud so it's still quite nice but only 24C. Still though this would count as an average summer day so I can't complain

Same here I think. It's hardly proper 'heat' as such anyway, only in the mid-high 20s, something that is pretty regular in July-August in this part of England, although since 2006 not quite as much. Wait till we have a plume type scenario and reach the low 30s, then people on here will die! The Spanish and Italians must laugh at some of us, this would be below average for them, whereas 28C is only about 4 or 5C above average for here. Funnily enough I did see some older people complaining earlier on today in the supermarket, but they were doing no help to themselves by wearing Jumpers and trousers etc!