Back to normal after one-day heatwave delivers 34.1C
The past month has seen the most prolonged spell of hot weather that the UK has experienced since 2006, with all of us seeing sunshine and heat.
Yesterday, the hottest day of the year so far was recorded, with the temperature reaching 34.1C at Heathrow airport in London.
This surpassed the previous hottest day of the year so far, when 33.5C was recorded at Northolt and Heathrow airport on 22 July.
What is impressive about yesterday’s heat is that it was a one-day heatwave. Normally, such high temperatures are achieved following a more prolonged hot spell, where heat is able to build day by day.
The reason for the intense burst of heat was a southerly wind, feeding up very hot air from Iberia, where in places, temperatures in recent days have soared into the low 40s celsius.
However, as I wrote in my blog on Monday, the burst of heat was always going to be short-lived, with fresher air and some thunderstorms pushing eastwards during Friday.
Interesting cloud formations
East Anglia and south east England saw some lively storms on Friday morning, with hail, thunder and amazing cloud formations.
In fact, Chris Goodey took the cloud picture below in Colchester, Essex, on Friday morning.
What is interesting about these clouds is that they look very much like asperatus clouds – a new cloud type that the Cloud Appreciation Society is trying to get officially recognised.
Weather for the next week
During the first week of August, the trend is for the weather over the UK to be pretty mixed, thanks to low pressure being over us or close by.
As a result, despite some pleasant spells of warm sunshine, there’ll also be showers or longer spells of rain at times, as weather fronts move in off the Atlantic.
With the wind often from the west or southwest, any heatwaves look unlikely, but temperatures will still reach the mid-20s in the sunshine.
Don’t forget, you can get the latest forecast on the Channel 4 Weather website. If you take any interesting cloud pictures, please send them to me on Twitter – @liamdutton