Kew Gardens hits 35.1C as Uk Weekend Heatwave Forecast holds
London hit 35.1C at Kew Gardens on Tuesday, and the UK hottest May day record was broken for a second day in a row. The uk weekend heatwave forecast remains hot enough to keep six amber heat health alerts in place across much of England until Thursday.
Kew Gardens and Bute Park
Kew Gardens in south-west London had already recorded 34.8C on Monday before Tuesday's 35.1C reading raised the benchmark again. Cardiff's Bute Park reached 32.3C on Tuesday, after Hawarden Airport in Flintshire logged 32.2C on Monday, giving Wales its own successive high temperatures.
Before Monday and Tuesday, the hottest May day on record in the UK was 32.8C, set in 1922 and matched in 1944. Dan Suri, the Met Office chief operational meteorologist, said the high temperatures were due to “the influence of warmth building under an area of high pressure near the UK”.
Amber alerts across England
The UK Health Security Agency has issued six amber heat health alerts covering much of England until Thursday. Much of England and Wales were in an official heatwave on Tuesday, with the threshold set at 25C for three days in a row in northern and western areas and 28C for three days in a row in London and the Home Counties.
The alerts place a focus on health and social care services at the same time as the heat pushes outdoor risk higher. The Met Office warned of “cold shock” in sea and other open water because those temperatures stay far below the air temperatures people are feeling during the heatwave.
Open water warnings
Police warned people to take care in open water after five young people and one man drowned in separate incidents in the past few days. A body was recovered from the River Ribble in Lancashire on Tuesday evening after emergency services searched for a 12-year-old boy who got into difficulty while swimming with friends.
Earlier on Tuesday, a body was recovered from the water of Rother Valley Country Park in South Yorkshire after a teenage boy went missing. Police also said 15-year-old Declan Sawyer died at a lake in Lincoln on Sunday, while a 13-year-old boy died on Monday after getting into difficulty in a reservoir in Halifax, West Yorkshire. At Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire, the body of a teenage girl was recovered on Monday evening, and a man in his 60s died on Monday at Tregirls Beach near Padstow, Cornwall, after running into the sea to help two relatives who got into difficulty.
The immediate task for people in the affected areas is to treat open water as a separate hazard from the heat itself and to assume conditions can change quickly, even as air temperatures stay elevated through Thursday.
