Porthmadog UK’s hottest but rain set for weekend
PORTHMADOG was the hottest place in the UK yesterday with temperatures hitting 28.1°C (82.58°F) on the warmest day of the year so far.
But the weather is set for a dramatic shift after the Met Office issued a yellow warning for rain and heavy thundery showers for parts of Wales today and tomorrow.
Heavy, thundery rain was forecast to arrive in the south west in the early hours today. A Met Office spokesman said: “Saturday will be hot again in the east but those heavy, thundery showers will move further north-eastwards, leaving fresher but still warm weather in the south west for the afternoon.”
Tomorrow there is a weather warning for the far south-east area of Wales between noon and midnight.
The Met Office said: “Another band of heavy rain is likely to spread northward through Sunday into Monday, with some locally torrential downpours and thunder possible.
“There are early indications that this could result in some disruption, with sudden flooding of roads, transport routes, homes and businesses possible. Please monitor forecasts through this weekend.”
A Met Office spokesman said that as of 2pm the highest temperature yesterday was 28.1°C, recorded in Porthmadog – which beat Thursday’s top temperature by 0.1°C, making it the warmest day of the year so far.
Experts hailed the start of an “exciting” new era for renewable energy as solar power hit a UK record of generating 8.7 gigawatts of power yesterday. The record for solar output was broken in the half-hour from noon, topping the previous record set on May 10, when 8.48 gigawatts was recorded.
A spokesman for the National Grid, which released the figures, said it was thanks to a “much higher than predicted” increase in solar panels.
He said: “This is certainly not going to be the last time the record gets broken.”
The figure accounted for 24.3% of the total power generation across Britain at the time.
Last month Britain experienced its first full day without generating any electricity from coal since the Industrial Revolution.
Duncan Burt is responsible for the National Grid’s control room operations where the national transmission network is balanced by ensuring supply and demand are matched second by second.
He said the National Grid had planned for these changes to the energy landscape and has the tools to manage them.
Mr Burt said: “We now have significant volumes of renewable energy on the system, and as this trend continues our ability to forecast these patterns is becoming more and more important.
“We have an expert team of forecasters who monitor a range of data to forecast just how much electricity will be needed over a set period.”