UK weather: What needs to happen to make this the hottest summer on record?
Warmest year on books still 1976 but 2018 could beat it if trends continue
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Your support makes all the difference.With the UK basking in a heatwave that feels like it might never end, the Met Office is suggesting we could be facing Britain's hottest summer on record.
So far this summer – defined as the months of June, July and August – we have experienced an average daily maximum temperatures of 20.9C.
The record for the full three months is 21C and was set in 1976.
This year's is therefore on target to hit the same heights and could even surpass it, providing the above-average heat holds steady over the remaining six weeks.
That summer also recorded a high of 669 hours of sunshine over the three months. In the first six weeks of 2018, we have already enjoyed 385 hours.
Barring a major change in weather patterns, the shortening of the days in the second half of the season should not prevent this year challenging that record too.
This has also been the driest start to a summer since records began in 1961, with just 47mm on average having fallen so far nationwide.
The driest complete summer came in 1995, when an average of 103mm fell over the three months, meaning 2018 is on course to trump that. Bad news for gardeners struggling to hydrate their plants.
The Met Office has suggested that, providing current trends continue, 2018 could enter the record books among the top five warmest summers ever recorded in Britain but cautioned: “It is important to remember we are only half way through the season and a lot can change.”
In what has been an extraordinary period of weather for the British Isles, a hosepipe ban has come into affect in northern areas, historic foundations have reappeared in parched fields and the country has turned from green to brown on satellite maps.
Residents were being advised to stay out of the sun on Monday as the hottest day of the year loomed, with temperatures as high as 34.5C forecast and an amber warning issued.
But spare a thought for Japan, where temperatures have hit a staggering 41.1C in Kumgaya, northwest of Tokyo, a new record.
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