Cooler air is moving in across much of the UK from Sunday, ending a spell of unseasonably hot weather that brought record temperatures and, by the end of the week, a sharp turn toward rain. After London hit 35.1C at Kew Gardens on Tuesday and Cardiff reached 32.9C at Bute Park, temperatures began to ease on Saturday and are set to fall further in the first few days of June.
The change is why weather today is being searched so heavily: many parts of the country are about to swing from one extreme to another. A stronger jet stream is steering areas of low pressure over the UK, and most places are expected to see rain developing on Monday, with the west likely to catch the heaviest bursts. By Tuesday, the picture turns unsettled again, with sunshine broken by heavy showers that could bring thunder and lightning, before more rain and stronger winds arrive on Wednesday.
For gardeners and growers, the rain will come as a relief after southern and eastern England had been very dry for months. Maximum temperatures by Wednesday are expected to sit between 15C and 20C, a long way from the heat that made England and Wales record their hottest May days on consecutive days. The UK Health Security Agency had issued both amber and yellow heat health alerts for much of England as the hot spell built.
But the relief is shadowed by what has happened in the water over the past week. At least 14 people died during the hot weather after getting into difficulties in lakes, rivers and the sea, including a 15-year-old girl who died in hospital on Saturday after getting into difficulty off the Merseyside coast on Monday. A 19-year-old man also died on Saturday after being recovered from a lake in Nottinghamshire earlier in the week, and emergency services in Yorkshire said on Sunday they were searching for an 11-year-old boy last seen entering the River Don in Mexborough.
The wet spell now arriving is set to linger into midweek, but the exact amounts are unclear and the heaviest rain and thunderstorms have not been pinned down. What is clear is that the country is heading into a cooler, wetter first week of June, with the hot May that broke records ending as abruptly as it arrived.
