Temperatures are set to top 30C in some parts of the country this week, as the UK prepares for its third heatwave of the summer.
As a heat health alert is issued, the Met Office has warned Britons could face more warm and uncomfortable nights ahead, with the mercury set to creep up from Wednesday.
If the temperatures remain high until Friday, the UK will officially mark its third heatwave of the season.
Temperatures are expected to climb even higher over the weekend into the low 30s.
A yellow heat health alert has now been issued for the southern half of England over the next week, warning “significant impacts” are likely across health and social care services due to higher temperatures over the period.
The alert, issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Tuesday, will be in place from 10am on Wednesday until 10am next Tuesday and covers London, the East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, South East and South West.
Marco Petagna, senior meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “I think Wednesday is probably going to be the day when we could start to reach the thresholds of 25 to 28 degrees, depending on where you are.
“But of course, you need three days at those temperatures for it to be able to be called a technical heatwave.
“So, although the temperature will be reaching the criteria, we probably won’t actually reach an official heatwave until around Friday, to give the three consecutive days at those temperatures.
“But temperatures are going to continue to climb as we go toward the end of the week and certainly by Friday and Saturday we could see 30 degrees, perhaps just nudging into the low 30s.
“At the weekend, we could just start to see humidity increasing a little bit as well and nighttime temperatures look like they are going to be, so it will be starting to become more uncomfortable by night.”
It is uncertain exactly how warm it will be for how long, though it appears as though the UK will avoid the stifling weather of the high 30s and low 40s seen in the Mediterranean.
Mr Petagna said: “It’s a bit of a question mark going through the weekend early next week as to how long the heat will last and how high the temperatures will get, because some models are sort of pushing the heat away a bit more quickly, whereas others keep the heat going.
“At this stage it looks as though certainly into next weekend, we should hold on to hot weather across the south of the UK and temperatures could again certainly get into the low 30s in a few spots.
“And we are going to see some very high pollen and very high UV levels as well.
“But at this stage, we’ve managed to escape some of the very highest temperatures, those seen across Spain and Portugal in particular, where it has reached the mid-40s.”
It follows a weekend of cooler air, cloud and rain in most of England, and a yellow warning for thunderstorms in the east of the country on Sunday.
Meanwhile, provisional Met Office figures showed England had its warmest June on record last month.
The UK saw its hottest day of the year so far when 34.7C was recorded at St James’s Park in central London on 1 July, while the capital also experienced the hottest start to Wimbledon on record.
Two amber heat health alerts were issued in consecutive weeks at the end of June amid two separate heatwaves.
