HEAT IS ON!
With June set to be the driest in decades, parks are parched and even gritters are sent out to protect our melting roads
PARCHED areas of Britain are set to record their driest June in more than a century as the heatwave continues into next week.
According to the Meteorological Office, England has received 15mm (0.6ins) of rain over the past month – compared with its average June rainfall of 62mm (2.4ins). Average June rainfall for the UK as a whole is 73.4mm (2.89ins).
With no rain forecast today, this month is poised to be drier than June 1976, when a record-breaking heatwave saw just 17.2mm (0.67ins) of rain recorded.
In some counties, June has been even drier still, with 1.5mm (0.059ins) of rain in Essex and 1.7mm (0.06ins) in Dorset.
The figures are 3 per cent of usual rainfall for June and, if there is no rain today, June 2018 will be the driest in those counties since records began in 1920.
The overall driest June in England was in 1925 when 2.3mm (0.09ins) of rain fell.
Grahame Madge of the Met Office said: ‘These are provisional figures but show how dry this month has been. The only parts of the country with rainfall at more or less normal levels for June have been parts of Scotland and the Lake District.
‘There is no significant rain in sight apart from a low risk of a shower tomorrow and Monday.’
Yesterday’s maximum temperatures failed to beat those recorded on Thursday. The highest figure of 32.5C ( 90.5F) was reached in Porthmadog, north Wales, while England’s highest was 29.4C (84.9F) at Bridgefoot, Cumbria.
This weekend temperatures could still reach 30C (86F) and above in western areas but will be time in a week. More than 80 firefighters continued to tackle a fire on Winter Hill near Bolton which started on Thursday afternoon.
Police said a 22-year-old man was being questioned on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.
Squads of soldiers had already helped bring ‘ unprecedented’ moorland fires in Saddleworth, Greater Manchester, under control.
The heatwave also led to the unusual sight of gritters being used in summer to help stop roads melting and sticking to tyres.
Local authorities in Cumbria, Lancashire, Doncaster and Hampshire are using the vehicles to spread crushed rock dust to create a non-stick layer between roads and cars.
Water companies, meanwhile, have urged customers to take simple steps to reduce the amount of water they use amid fears of shortages.
Northern Ireland Water said demand is outstripping supply, leaving them with no option but to bring in the first hosepipe ban.
Severn Trent, which supplies the Midlands, also said households are using water faster than its treatment works allow.