Britain issued an extreme heat warning on Monday, with temperatures expected to reach more than 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) across much of England and Wales.
Forecasters said warm weather would persist for much of the week, particularly in southern and central England and Wales, with peaks of 33C possible in south-east England on Tuesday.
Temperatures were still a few degrees cooler than the heatwave in parts of Spain and Portugal, where mercury was expected to rise to over 40C.
However, the Met Office’s deputy chief meteorologist Rebekah Sherwin said the UK highs would continue into early next week.
“From Sunday to Monday, temperatures in the south east (of England) are likely to be above 35C, although the details are still uncertain,” she said.
“Elsewhere, temperatures could be quite well above 32C in England and Wales and in the mid to high 20C further north.”
The highest recorded temperature in the UK was 38.7°C on July 25, 2019 at the Cambridge Botanic Garden in eastern England.
Sherwin said forecasters couldn’t rule out that record being broken, but it was “still a slim probability”.
“A number of weather scenarios are still possible, and as of this writing, mid or maybe high 30s are more likely,” she added.
The extreme heat warning was rated a “yellow”, the second highest out of three, indicating a “high impact” on daily life and people.
Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre, said “heavily embedded warming from climate change” across Europe increases the chances of a new UK record.
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