Heat and humidity to return this week

Last Friday saw the mercury soar to 32.3C (90F) in Gravesend, Kent, giving us our hottest day of the year so far.

It was also the first time that a temperature of 30C or above has been recorded in the UK since the beginning of September last year.

Even though the most intense heat was focused across eastern parts of England, the rest of the UK had notable heat too, with temperatures in the range of 20-28C. 

However, as I wrote on Friday, it was all due to change at the weekend, with severe thunderstorms drifting northwards across us.

The thunderstorms delivered hail, lightning, gusty winds and torrential downpours to the worst hit areas. Westonbirt, Gloucestershire had 79mm of rain on Saturday and Norwich, Norfolk had 58mm of rain on Sunday.

The intensity of the downpours also caused some flash flooding across south eastern parts of England, with disruption and flooded roads.

Heat and humidity to return

Although temperatures have eased off by a few degrees through the weekend, the heat and humidity is going to return by the middle of this week.

The reason for this is a big area of high pressure centred over Scandinavia. It’s around this that the winds will blow in a clockwise direction – feeding in hot air from continental Europe, where temperatures have been in the mid-30s.

So despite temperatures beginning the week in the mid-20s, they will rise by a degree or so a day between now and the end of the week.

This means that by Thursday, temperature across eastern parts of England will be in the range of 25-30C, with the rest of the UK at 21-27C.

Shower risk

Even though most places will have a good deal of sunshine, with the UK being on the periphery of the high pressure over Scandinavia, there will be enough moisture in the mix to cause some showers.

At the moment, it looks like the risk of showers will increase from midweek onwards – especially on Thursday and Friday, with southern and western parts of the UK most prone.

With high temperatures and humidity, some of the showers will again be thundery, bringing a renewed risk of flash flooding locally.

The latest information also suggests that the hot weather is likely to persist through next weekend too, before temperatures taper off into the start of next week.

Don’t forget, you can get the latest forecast on the Channel 4 Weather website. I’ll also be posting regular updates on Twitter – @liamdutton