Hottest day of the year expected this weekend

By John-Paul Ford Rojas

But it is not necessarily good news for sun seekers yearning for a dose of summer after this week’s showers, as it will remain largely cloudy.

There are unlikely to be unbroken blue skies while day trippers heading for coastal areas will find many hazy and humid.

The cloudy weather means there will be little relief from the oppressive heat during the night with temperatures remaining as high as 20C in places.

While it is expected to remain dry in the south east, the west of Britain is expected to see heavy rain.

Forecasters say the mercury is likely to reach 28 or 29C tomorrow, possibly hitting the low 30s by Sunday.

The previous high for this year was 30.7C, recorded at St James’s Park in London on July 25.

This weekend’s hot weather is being brought by warm, humid air spreading up from continental Europe.

Met Office forecaster Sarah Holland said: “It is going to be very hot.”

But she said that for the start of next week as westerly winds moved in, temperatures would ease back to the low 20s, feeling “much more pleasant”.

Met Office Chief Forecaster Martin Young said of this weekend: "While it will be hot in the South East, we're not expecting wall-to-wall sunshine and it will feel quite humid and oppressive over the weekend.

"As we head into next week, south westerly winds will push that humid air away to bring fresher conditions, and showers to north west Britain."

Meanwhile, the Met Office has issued a severe weather warnings for rain across parts of western Britain today.

Rainfall of 60mmm or more is expected in parts of Wales and northern England, accompanied by strong winds, which "could cause disruption in sme places". - Telegraph