Britain Records Hottest Day of the Year at 38.1C
Temperatures reached 38.1C this afternoon, the highest of the year and the peak of the summer’s fifth heatwave, the Met Office said. It falls short of the UK record of 40.3C set in July 2022, but comes with wildfires at their highest levels of the year and most of England in drought. Forecasters expect rain moving in from the south to break the spell.
The reading caps a punishing week that has stretched the emergency services, buckled rail lines and pushed hospitals onto heat-health alerts, a day after the government convened Cobra over the crisis. Firefighters have battled blazes across parched countryside, and water companies have widened restrictions as reservoirs run low. The relief of incoming rain will be tempered by the risk that sudden downpours on hard-baked ground bring flash flooding, and by the knowledge that such extremes are becoming more frequent as the climate warms. Farmers, meanwhile, count the cost of scorched crops that will feed through to food prices. Watch how quickly the heat breaks and whether the drought eases with it.