Daily Times

A tropical blast will bring the hottest weekend of the year so far with summer records likely to tumble next week. Searing heat from the Azores Islands, off the coast of Portugal, will push temperatures towards the 30C mark over the next few days, with Brits enjoying highs of 75F today.

Another surge could see the mercury touch 35C in parts by the middle of next week, putting the UK June record under threat.

Britain will be hotter than Ibiza; Mallorca, Spain; the Greek Islands and even Singapore and South America in a throwback to the historic 1976 heatwave.

Temperatures in the south will rocket into the high 20Cs on Saturday, with 31C forecast on Sunday and Monday.

Scotland and the north will be slightly cooler although the region will still be much warmer than average for the time of year.

Temperatures over the next three days are expected to push past the 29.4C recorded in Lossiemouth, Scotland last month. The Met Office said temperatures will soar widely this weekend before possibly hitting the mid 30C in parts next week.

There is a chance the UK June record of 96.08F (35.6C) set in Southampton during the 1976 heatwave could topple. Met Office forecaster Emma Sharples said, “We are more confident at this stage that we will get in to the 30Cs through he weekend and then possibly the mid 30Cs towards the middle of next week. Fresher conditions will arrive later in the week, but there is lower confidence over the timing of this and whether there will be a thundery breakdown associated with it. This is due initially to warm Atlantic air from the Azores, then into the start of next week we get more of a Continental flow. While Scotland and the north will be fresher than the very hot conditions in the south, it is worth pointing out they could still reach the mid 20Cs.”

The main thrust of the heat will engulf the south over the coming days with more comfortable temperatures forecast for the north.

The Met Office predicts highs of 25C in Manchester this weekend with 20C forecast for Glasgow, Scotland; 23C likely in Newcastle; 24C in Leeds and 26C around central England.

Cooler air will bring a fresher feel to Scotland by the middle of next week while the rest of the UK roasts. Glasgow will see highs of around 17C while Leeds can look forward to a more comfortable 26C with Birmingham touching 30C.

This year saw the warmest spring for central England in records dating back more than 350 years.

It was the warmest March to May period in the Central England Temperature series, which has records covering an area of central England going back to 1659 – making it the longest instrumental record of temperature in the world.

Temperatures averaged 10.27C this spring, narrowly beating the 2011 record of 10.23C, the Met Office said.

For the UK as a whole, the month of May was the second warmest in records stretching back to 1910.

It was a generally dry and settled month, although parts of the South and East were much wetter than normal while parts of the North and West of the UK had much lower rainfall than average.

Despite above-average rainfall in the South East, the amount of rain received since last summer is the lowest for the southern region of the UK since the 1975/1976 drought, the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology (CEH) said.

Some exceptionally dry soils in early May caused agricultural stress and the early onset of irrigation in some areas of the South East, the CEH said in its monthly summary.

River flows in the majority of catchments were below average in May, with very low levels across much of Scotland and parts of central and southern England.

Groundwater levels were largely below normal or notably low, except in southwest Scotland and northeast England, the summary showed. Safety campaigners have urged people wanting to cool down in hot weather to take extra care in open waters.