Yellow heat health alerts have been issued for large parts of England as temperatures are expected to climb back up over the weekend, potentially reaching 33C next week.
Temperature rise expected from Saturday
Temperatures had dropped down closer to averages for this time of year from Wednesday, but they are expected to rise again from Saturday, according to the Met Office.
By next Tuesday, much of central and southern England as well as some parts of Wales are set to see highs of 30C to 33C, the forecaster said.
Alerts in force across regions
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued yellow heat health alerts for the East Midlands, West Midlands, South East, South West, East of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, and London.
They will come into force at 9am on Saturday August 8 and end at 9pm on Tuesday August 11.
Forecast details
“The warm weather is continuing once again,” said Honor Criswick, meteorologist at the Met Office, adding that Friday is set to be a “nice, dry, settled day with quite a bit of warm sunshine around”.
On Saturday, Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland can expect to see some cloud and outbreaks of rain, while it will be another dry day with plenty of sunshine elsewhere, with highs of about 29C across central and southern England and eastern areas of Wales, Ms Criswick said.
“Where we see the sunshine, it’s going to start to turn quite increasingly warm on Saturday,” she added.
“Saturday night going into Sunday, that’s a slightly warmer day, so temperatures are already going to be that bit higher starting off the day, which is why we’ll see a bit of an increase once again on Sunday – probably reaching between 30C and 32C, and that’ll be somewhere across south or south-east England.
“Once again on Sunday we do just have some bits of showery rain sinking their way southeastwards, so a few more areas could catch a few showers.
“But it’s only just a few showers, and there’s not much rain, really.
“It’s not going to be enough to make any real difference to the dry summer we’ve had.”
Impact and context
A slight dip in temperatures is expected next Monday, reaching around 27C to 29C across southern England.
“Then in Tuesday, they come up again,” Ms Criswick said, adding the heat will become more widespread across England and Wales.
The yellow heat-health alerts warn high temperatures may have a significant impact across health and social care services in the affected areas, with a possible rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions.
This summer has seen two recordbreaking heatwaves, in May and June, that led to more than 2,800 excess deaths, and two more heatwaves in July which has fuelled drought and wildfires.
Last month was the driest July for England and Wales since records began in 1836, according to provisional figures released by the Met Office.
Nineteen counties across England recorded effectively no rainfall – 1mm or less – across the whole of the month, Met Office figures show.
England as a whole had just a 10th of the average rainfall for the month while Wales saw just 9% of the average, with both countries seeing less than half of the rainfall in the previous record dry July in 1911.
The UK, England and Wales have all recorded their sunniest Julys on record – and for England and Wales it was the sunniest calendar month ever observed, the Met Office previously said.
