Britons will face temperatures of at least 35C by Thursday, weather forecasters warned, as parts of the country remain in the grip of a stifling heatwave.
Weeks of high temperatures – predicted to exceed 30C all this week in some places – have turned fields brown, ripened wild berries months earlier than normal and triggered an amber-level heat health warning, with people urged to stay out of the sun.
At midnight following the hottest day of the year on Monday, East Anglia and London residents struggled to sleep in 21C heat, equivalent to the average July daytime temperature for the regions.
Becky Mitchell, a meteorologist from the Met Office, warned that the mercury “could go even warmer than” the expected 35C on Thursday, however.
The soaring temperatures come courtesy of warm air arriving from France combined with high pressure across the country.
The hottest July day on record is 36.7C, recorded at Heathrow in 2015.
Central and south-eastern England, including London, remain under the heat health warning. Amber is the second-highest level before a red “national emergency”.
Ultra-violet levels are high, the Met Office said, telling people to stay in the shade during the middle of the day, wear sunscreen and cover up.
It came as a survey revealed nearly three-quarters of parents do not protect their children’s eyes from UV rays. Thirty-one per cent believe eyeballs cannot be sunburned.
Children’s eyes do not fully develop and provide natural lens protection until the age of 12 and they are likely to spend much more time outside during school holidays than their parents.
Despite this, only 30 per cent of parents said they worried about their children having too much exposure to UV and how it could lead to long term damage.
However, pollen count was low across the UK, the Met Office said early on Tuesday. “Although we are now into weed #pollen season, it’s likely to take a while for the pollen levels to rise again,” it tweeted.
Additional reporting by PA
