Hot all week for eastern England, perhaps 35C on Thursday, warming up elsewhere, before a thundery breakdown Friday brings a little relief into the weekend.
The heat across parts of England shows no signs of relenting yet, Monday was the hottest day of the year so far, with Santon Downham reaching 33.3C, beating the previous hottest day of the year on 28th June, when Porthmadog in NW Wales recorded 33.0C. Today and tomorrow will likely reach the low thirties degrees Celsius across parts of SE England and East Anglia. We could see even higher temperatures reached across parts of eastern England on Thursday and Friday, perhaps reaching 34-35C. The current heatwave has triggered a Met Office Heat Health Alert Level 3 of 4. Read Jo Farrow's Blog on what these warnings mean.
It will be cloudier and cooler across the north and west at times for the rest of the week though, with a little rain today and showery rain, perhaps heavy, returning on Thursday across the west. We may even see some thunderstorms develop towards the east later on Thursday and through Friday, as the heat briefly breaks down ahead of a cold front moving east and introducing slightly cooler and fresher conditions for all to start the weekend. However, the heat looks set to build again next week towards SE Britain, with temperatures returning back into the low 30s Celsius.
For now, it was another warm and uncomfortable night for sleeping in the south and east, temperatures at 7am already 21C across East Anglia and 20C in the London area.
A weakening cold front moving west to east is bringing a cloudy start across northern and western parts, with a band of fragmenting rain lying northeast-southwest across northern England and down across Wales. The band of cloudier skies along the weak front will make slow progress further east across Wales, northern and central England through the day, perhaps continuing to produce some showery bursts across northern England and Wales. Somewhat fresher conditions with sunny spells following the front across Scotland and Northern Ireland for the rest of the day, though a few showers may break out across eastern Scotland this afternoon. Ahead of the front another very warm or hot and humid day across much of central, southern and eastern England. The heat may trigger one or two isolated thunderstorms across SE England in the afternoon, but most will stay dry.
Temperatures reaching 19-21C across Scotland and Northern Ireland, 21-25C across northwest England, Midlands, Wales and SW England, 27-30C across eastern and SE England.
Any showery bursts across northern and central parts or isolated thundery showers across the southeast tending to fade this evening to leave a largely dry night with clear spells, perhaps a few mist patches forming in the light winds.
Most places should be dry on Wednesday, though some cloudier skies across the far west bringing some patchy rain to Northern Ireland and NW Scotland, perhaps an outside chance of a heavy thundery downpour developing across SE England and East Anglia too. Otherwise dry with plenty of sunshine for most, sunnier than today. A warmer day for northern and western areas where temperatures will reach 22-26C, hot again across eastern England where temperatures will reach 28-31C.
The heat continues across central and eastern areas on Thursday under mostly clear skies, if anything, a little hotter, as the flow backs southeasterly off a hot near continent, so we could see highs of 33-34C. A more active frontal system moves into the far west, threatening some rain, perhaps heavy, across Ireland and Northern Ireland along with the far west of Scotland.
We will start to see a breakdown in the heat from the west on Friday, as that active cold front in the far west progresses eastwards. Some uncertainty over exact timing, but although it will start hot, sunny and humid in the east, the change in airmass from the west with that front will likely trigger some thunderstorms across central and eastern areas of England, while further west it will be cooler with some showers at times.
Thundery breakdown of the heat across the east on Friday
Fresher conditions and slightly lower temperatures into the weekend, with showery rain around for the north and west, however, the heat looks set to return to southeast England and East Anglia early next week.
