101F Heatwave tipped to break record
BRITAIN is set to swelter in another spell of scorching weather this week with bookmakers slashing the odds on the country having its hottest day ever.
A blast of hot air, dubbed the “Mediterranean Melt” will start the week off at about 87F (32C) and end it by exceeding 100F.
Met Office forecasters are confident that Britons will sizzle in 95F heat but bookmakers have cut the odds to 2-1 that the country will experience its hottest day ever recorded, beating the 101F record from 2003.
Showers
Harry Aitkenhead of Coral said: “We’ve not been short of sun this summer but it’s showing no signs of stopping and August looks set to be a belter. There’s every chance it will go on to break the record and we’ve cut our odds accordingly.”
The bookmaker has also set odds of 6-4 on August being the hottest on record, as well as 1-4 for the hottest overall summer.
It is almost certain that Britain will break its 91.4F hottest day of the year, set on June 28 at Porthmadog, west Wales, and be hotter than Montego Bay, Jamaica, and Acapulco, Mexico.
Met Office meteorologist Sarah Kent said that today, in London and the South-east, it will be as high as 90F and towards the end of the week those in the Southeast could see the mercury rise to the highest levels seen this year.
She added: “It’ll be humid overnight, and then on Tuesday it will be 32C, possibly 33C (91.4F). There could be some very isolated showers, but otherwise it will be dry and hot.
“On Wednesday and Thursday, it will be possible that the temperature could reach 93.2F, which would make it the hottest day in more than a year.
“It was 94.1F at Heathrow on July 21 last year. If it gets hotter than that, which it could do, then we could see the hottest day since July 1, 2015.
“That’s when it got to 98.08F, also at Heathrow. That was the hottest temperature ever recorded in July.”