Forecasters are urging people to take the upcoming extreme heat warning seriously, as the potential dangers are very real.
The weather this week has been sweltering, with temperatures reaching 32°C in some parts of the country.
Out of the ordinary dry and hot conditions have led to fires in fieldswhile in London a deceptive spark ignited a fire on some train tracks.
It is expected to cool in the coming days as cooler currents flow from the north to the south, the Met Office says.
Some heavy showers are expected in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England today and tomorrow, while in the south it will be in the mid-20s to 20s, so a little milder.
Saturday, barring some rain and clouds in the north of Scotland, most of the country will be blessed with a ‘lovely summer’s day’, says Met Office forecaster Aiden McGivern.
The mercury is expected to reach the mid-20s in the north and 30C in the hottest spots in the south.
But then conditions will really start to heat up on Sunday as a vortex of ‘very hot air’ cleared up through the Iberian Peninsula heads towards Britain.
It will be the ‘start of a prolonged period of high daytime temperatures and very warm nights’ – possibly around 20C – and the lack of lighting at night means there will be a ‘cumulative effect’.
By early next week, temperatures will reach the low 30s in many places, while they could reach the high 30s in parts of the south east, east and northern England.
“Of course that would be close to Britain’s all-time temperature record, which is 38.7°C – a 20% chance of breaking that record,” said Mr McGivern.
He adds: “I can already hear people saying, ‘I can handle this kind of heat, why do we need an extreme heat warning?’
Well, the reason is that this heat seems to be widespread, not just in the usual hot spots of the south east of England.
‘Not only that, but little lighting at night, so of course the houses in the UK are built to retain heat for much of the time.
“So it’s very difficult to get that lighting at night, and that can cause health effects, not just in vulnerable people.”
He adds that the heat wave could lead to different consequences for transport and infrastructure – and this is based on experience.
“We’re not just making up these effects, they’re based on the fact that we’ve seen similar effects from previous hot spells in the UK,” he adds.
“So if we see a recurrence of these kinds of heat waves in these kinds of areas, well, then we can only extrapolate that effects are possible.”
Network Rail warned that speed limits would be put in place to protect the tracks, while the RAC said the number of breakdowns rose 10% on Monday as cars struggled to function properly.
Mr McGivern added that there is still ‘some uncertainty’ about how hot it could get and temperatures could go even higher than currently forecast.’
Some supercomputer models have suggested it will hit 43C this weekend, though the Met Office said the “mid-to-high 30C” was more likely.
The Met Office’s extreme heat warning is currently in effect from Sunday to Tuesday,
Meteorologists aren’t sure when it will come, but the heat wave is likely to be broken up with thunderstorms sometime next week.
“After any thunderstorms have cleared, the signal for later next week is that high pressure will build again, albeit with much cooler air,” said Mr McGivern.
“That would lead to drier and in many places sunnier weather for much of the UK returning with closer to average temperatures.”
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