London hit 35.1C at Kew Gardens on Tuesday, setting a new May temperature record for the city and helping push Britain to a fresh national high for the month. South-east England stayed above 34C for a second day in a row, while six amber heat health alerts were issued across the south-west, West Midlands, East Midlands, east of England, south east and London.
The temperature spike did not land in one place alone. Nearly all weather stations across England and Wales broke their local May records on Monday and Tuesday, a sign of how broad the heat was rather than a one-off reading in the capital. For Londoners, the number mattered because it put the city at the sharp end of a hot spell that has already stretched public health warnings across much of England.
Meteorologically, the UK is still in spring, but the air behaved more like midsummer in many places. Temperatures across large parts of the country were running 10 to 15 degrees above normal, a gap that helps explain why the 35c temperature in london became part of a wider national pattern instead of an isolated outlier. Ed Hawkins said the heatwave “stands out,” a short line that fits the scale of the readings recorded this week.
By Wednesday, cooler air had moved into northern and eastern areas of England, bringing some relief after the record-breaking start to the week. London and south-east England were still forecast to reach up to 27C, while Wales and south-western England could still touch 30C. Even with the brief cooldown, the pattern was far from finished: temperatures were expected to rise again on Thursday as hot air re-surfaced from France.
That next surge is what keeps this spell in focus. Forecast models show cooler weather gradually returning from Friday into the weekend, but only after another jump in temperatures that could push parts of the country back toward 28C or higher. The immediate question is no longer whether this week will go into the record books — it already has — but how much more heat Britain absorbs before the first week of June arrives.
