Temperatures across England are expected to climb back up over the weekend, potentially reaching 33C next week.
While temperatures had dropped down closer to averages for this time of year from Wednesday, they are set 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 will see highs of 30C to 33C, the forecaster said.
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.
“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”.
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 have recorded effectively no rainfall – 1mm or less – across the whole month, Met Office figures show.
Wisley, a small village in Surrey has reported a record 50 days with no rain, beating the notorious 1976 heatwave by 14 days.
England as a whole has experienced just a 10th of the average rainfall for the month while Wales saw just 9 per cent of the average.
Both have recorded their sunniest Julys on record – and for England and Wales it was the sunniest calendar month ever observed, the Met Office previously said.
While Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland can expect to see some cloud and outbreaks of rain on Saturday, 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.
“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.”
A slight dip in temperatures is expected next Monday, reaching around 27C to 29C across southern England. But by Tuesday, the heat is set to return.
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 that led to more than 2,800 excess deaths in May and June, while two further heatwaves in July have fuelled drought and wildfires across the country.
