Shropshire Star

Another heatwave? Met Office on alert for rising temperatures

The Met Office has issued an update over a possible UK heatwave in August following record temperatures in July.

Published
Firefighters at the scene of a blaze in the village of Wennington, east London amid the 40°C heat

It comes as the UK remains on the brink of its first hosepipe ban in a decade following unprecedented temperatures earlier in the month.

Officials including the Environment Agency met with water companies to discuss how to protect water supplies.

Now, forecasters are keeping a close eye on the weather charts once again warning temperatures could start ‘rising day by day’ from the end of this week.

A spokesperson for the Met Office said: ‘Some southeastern areas of the country could reach their heatwave thresholds on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st July (with maximum temperatures of 28°C – 30°C possible in London and SE England.

‘However, there are currently no indications that conditions will be anything like as hot as they were across large areas of the UK on the 18th and 19th July.’

For a spell of hot weather to be classified as a heatwave, temperatures must hit 28°C in London, 27°C in southern and central England or 25°C in the rest of the country, for three consecutive days.

In Wolverhampton, the temperatures are set to rise to 24°C today, 23°C tomorrow and staying around 22°C on Sunday into next week, while elsewhere in the Black Country, Staffordshire and Shropshire are in line for similar conditions.

Temperatures are currently predicted to reach 27°C in London today before rising to 28°C on Saturday and Sunday with lots of sunshine.

The warning comes as Britain’s green spaces have been victim to a spate of wildfires.