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The UK has basked in the warmest start to May on record as temperatures continued to soar during a mini heatwave this week.
Kew Gardens, in south-west London, registered 29.3C on Thursday afternoon, the Met Office said, taking it past the previous 1 May record high temperature of 27.4C at Lossiemouth in Moray in 1990 – and more than 10C above average.
Thursday was also the warmest day of the year so far beating the previous high of 26.7C reached in Wisley, Surrey, on Wednesday, the agency said.
Firefighters were battling wildfires and warnings were issued over the “hidden dangers” of open water swimming after the recovery of a 16-year-old boy’s body from a lake in Nottingham.
However, the unusually hot weather is still likely to fall just outside of official Met Office heatwave thresholds, according to the forecaster’s deputy chief meteorologist David Oliver. To officially qualify as a heatwave, temperatures must hit a certain temperature – of 25C across much of Britain, rising to 28C in London – for three consecutive days.
Thursday is set to mark the peak of the heat, according to Met Office meteorologist Craig Snell, with temperatures expected to dip over the weekend and much of the UK feeling noticeably cooler than in recent days.
Temperatures should start to ease on Friday, with Met Office spokesman Stephen Dixon saying on Thursday afternoon: “Temperatures tomorrow will be slightly reduced from what we’ve seen today, possibly 26 or 27 degrees in the far south-east of England through the day tomorrow.”
The Met Office warned of a low risk of some heavy showers or thunderstorms developing later on Thursday and into Friday, although most areas should remain largely dry.
In its forecast for later on Thursday, the agency said: “Any showers or thunderstorms easing, though one or two showers perhaps persisting in the south. Clearer and colder in the northwest with a patchy frost, and a few coastal showers.”
The Met Office then predicted Friday will bring “some showery rain across central areas at first, though dying out during the morning. Cooler with variable cloud and scattered showers in the north, whilst remaining warmer in the south.”
Cooler conditions are expected over the weekend, with Saturday set to bring temperatures of 14C to 18C across the UK.
Over the weekend, the forecaster predicted: “Scattered showers in the south at times, and a few further north, though a lot of dry weather for many with some sunshine. Temperatures dropping, becoming rather cool in places.”
The weather is likely to become more changeable next week as dry, settled periods are interspersed with spells of wetter weather and temperatures closer to the monthly average for May.
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