Weather today: Met Office says UK heatwave finally eases with thundery showers and cooler air on way
The record-breaking May heatwave is expected to ease slightly across England on Thursday, with the Met Office predicting London will hit 31C.
This marks a noticeable drop from the 35.1C recorded at Kew Gardens in West London on Tuesday, while the Midlands and North West are expecting top temperatures of 28C.
Forecasters also said another “tropical night” where temperatures would stay above 20C was unlikely.
However, the UK will remain largely warm, particularly in the south, with “somewhat fresher and possibly showery conditions” expected from Friday into the weekend.
In a post on X, the Met Office said: “A warm start to Thursday with showers, possibly thunderstorms, moving northwards and clearing the north of England.
“Temperatures will soon rise as sunlight becomes hazier in the west.”
The outlook for Friday through Sunday says: “Mainly dry with sunny skies and very warm again on Friday. Then a bunch of rain will slowly spread eastward over the weekend, bringing fresher and possibly showery conditions.”
Meanwhile, thousands of people in Kent have been asked to use water only for essential purposes after high demand during the heatwave caused supply problems.
South West Water’s head of operations control, Matthew Dean, said around 18,000 customers were experiencing water supply issues and some would have intermittent water supplies until reservoir levels returned to normal.
“In preparation for this, we have informed our customers that while they have water on hand, they should reserve some water for basic use,” he said.
“We continue to ask our customers to use water only for essential purposes such as drinking, washing and cooking.
“Our bottled water collection stations have already been set up and monitored.”
The hot weather has led many people to take to open water swimming, resulting in several deaths in South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Cornwall, Hampshire, Warwickshire, Cheshire, Pembrokeshire, Lincolnshire and Lancashire in recent days.
Declan Sawyer, 15, died after getting into trouble at Swanholme Lakes in Lincoln on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, a 72-year-old woman died after being pulled from the water at West Angle Bay beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, at around 3.15pm.
A 13-year-old boy, identified as Reco Puttock, died after getting into trouble at the Leadbeater Dam near Halifax in West Yorkshire on Monday, while the body of a young girl was pulled from the water at Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire.
The same day, a man in his 60s died of a heart attack after diving into the sea at Tregirls Beach in Padstow to help two family members in distress, Devon and Cornwall Police said.
South Yorkshire Police said the body of a teenager was pulled from the water at Rother Valley Country Park in Rotherham in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Another body has been found during the search for a teenage boy who was last seen swimming in Hawley Lake on the Hampshire/Surrey border on Tuesday afternoon.
A 12-year-old boy who died after getting into trouble in the River Ribble in Ribchester, Lancashire, on Tuesday has been named Junior Slater, from Clayton-le-Woods.
The body of a 17-year-old boy has been found after he went missing from Pickmere Lake in Marston, Northwich, Cheshire Police said on Wednesday.
NHS England said there were 20,092 visits to its heatstroke advice page on bank holiday Monday, up from 488 the previous Monday. There were 36,724 visits throughout the entire weekend.
