hottest May day in UK

London -The UK has recorded its all-time hottest meteorological spring temperature as part of London hit 34.8 degrees Celcius.

The provisional reading at Kew Gardens, south-west London, broke the highest May temperature that, until Monday, stood at 32.8 degrees reached in 1922 and 1944, the Met Office said at around 5 pm (1600 GMT).

Temperature records are usually broken by just tenths of a degree.

It is also 10 to 15 degrees hotter than average for much of the UK, the forecasters’ senior meteorologist Greg Dewhurst reported.

If validated, the latest record means seven of the 12 monthly highs have been set since 2003, the Met Office said.

It listed 12 locations where the record was topped on Monday, ranging from Suffolk to Berkshire to Warwickshire.

A previous study by the forecasters found breaking that record “is around three times more likely now in our current climate than it would have been in a natural climate not impacted by greenhouse gas emissions.”

This means that the once one-in-a-hundred year event is now a one-in-33 event, it said.

hottest May day in UK

Parts of central and southern England face further forecasts of up to 36 degrees on Tuesday as heatwaves continue.

It comes after last week saw lows of minus 5 degrees in Scotland and daytime temperatures more widely peaked at about 14 degrees to 15 degrees.

“We see these changes happening so much more dramatically,” Dewhurst said on Monday morning, adding that climate change is boosting the heat.

“In the past, heatwaves built and built and built and built over days and days and days – these now just develop so quickly.

“It’s huge sort of swinging temperatures, and obviously records being broken by day and by night, so it just shows sort of how extreme the weather can change, and how quickly it can change, as well.”

hottest May day in UK

As a result of climate change, all meteorological models are predicting “more extreme heat, more extreme weather events” and “hotter, drier summers – wetter, windier winters”, he added.

Amid the bank holiday weekend heat, South East Water apologised and handed out bottled water after about 502 of its customers had issues including outages and low pressure.

Meanwhile, fire and smoke spread across a large patch of Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, above St Anthony’s degreeshapel on Monday.

Wales also provisionally beat its May record as Hawarden Airport reached 32.2 degrees, with the previous peak measured at 30.6 degrees in 1944.

The UK’s warmest May night was also recorded on Sunday when temperatures did not fall below 19.4 degrees at Kenley Airfield, Surrey.

The month’s previous record low was 18.9 degrees in 1944.