As Britain recovers from record-breaking hot weather in June, Londoners may be wondering when the next heatwave will be.
The capital bore the brunt of much of the past week’s heatwave with four consecutive days of temperatures in the mid-thirties, while London Ambulance Service faced a surge in heat-related illnesses.
Some normality resumed from Sunday, when temperatures peaked at 26C, with similar highs expected to continue throughout the week.
Although many of us will welcome the drop in temperatures, the question on people’s lips is when the next summer heatwave will strike.
And according both WXCharts and BBC Weather, the answer is very soon.
WXChart's technology predicts that closer to normal temperatures with highs around 25C will dominate into the start of July.
But after that, a five-day heatwave is forecast to strike central and southern England starting on Tuesday, July 7, with the highest temperatures in London.
On that day, the weather mapping tool predicts a heat surge with temperatures of 32C in London, and most of England above 30C.
The following day on Wednesday, July 8, will see even more extreme heat as temperatures are predicted to rise to 36C in the capital. The hot climate will linger on Thursday, July 9 when a peak of 34C is expected, while similar peaks in the low thirties are anticipated for Friday, July 10, Saturday, July 11 and Sunday, July 12.
The Met Office’s own long weather forecast states: “High pressure dominates the weather into the second week of July, especially across England and Wales...
“Temperatures are likely to be above normal on the whole, with a greater than normal chance of hot conditions developing at times.”
BBC weather predicts a heatwave could start even sooner - and last longer.
Its forecast for London, as of Monday, June 29, suggests temperatures could hit 28C - the threshold for heatwave conditions in the capital - on Sunday, July 5.
It predicts that will be the start of an eight-day heatwave lasting until at least Sunday, July 12, with temperature highs of up to 32C.
The past week’s heatwave smashed the long-standing record for June heat, which dates back to the summer of 1976, by more than 1C, which is significant given such records were usually broken only by a fraction of a degree in the past.
Scientists warned that the heatwave would have been virtually impossible 50 years ago, with human-driven climate change fuelling more intense and frequent extreme heat events.
Several hospitals declared critical incidents, with University Hospital Southampton forced to cancel a number of planned operations and some outpatient appointments.
The heatwave was driven by a “heat-dome” – an area of high pressure that stalls over a region and traps heat – settling over western Europe and bringing extreme conditions across the continent.
This has been compounded by human-driven climate change, mostly caused by burning fossil fuels, which is making such extreme heatwaves more frequent and intense.
