Copacabana? No, Bournemouth!
Britain hits the beach as hottest day of the year beats even Brazil
ENJOYING some blissful relief in the cooling sea, a bather revels in the hottest day of the year.
Lucimora Goiania soaked up the sun on the beach at Bournemouth yesterday – and as she closed her eyes she must have thought for a moment that she was back in Brazil, her home country.
Indeed the hottest temperature – recorded at Bushy Park in Teddington, south-west London – was 29.7C (85.4F) while the famous Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro managed a paltry 23C (73F) by comparison.
The previous warmest day of the year in the UK was June 2, when 28.3C ( 82.9F) was recorded at Northolt in northwest London.
Britons who headed to the beaches up and down the coast yesterday were wise to do so because thunderstorms are on the way. Even yesterday, clouds were bubbling up over Wales, the Midlands and northern England as a weather front moved southwards.
The Met Office said fine and sunny weather will return ‘for most places’ today and it will be ‘very warm’ again, reaching highs of 26-27C (79-81F).
Tomorrow is due to be hot and humid in the South, where temperatures could again rise to 29C (84F). Further north it will be bright and sunny at first before cloud starts to build.
The Met Office said the very hot weather has been caused by a plume of warm air being drawn north from Spain.
But thunderstorms will arrive from Wednesday evening, lasting into Thursday and Friday, and could bring up to two inches of rain in just a few hours.
In a weather warning, the Met Office said: ‘Some intense thunderstorms may occur, with torrential rain, hail, frequent lightning and strong gusty winds possible.’ The storms will usher in fresher air, sending temperatures tumbling to the average for the time of year of about 20C (68F) in the South and the high teens (low 60s F) in the North.
It emerged yesterday that a man in his 30s died in the heatwave after falling from his kayak and being swept out to sea.
An RNLI crew launched within ten minutes of Saturday’s incident at Caldy, Wirral, and an HM Coastguard helicopter was subsequently dispatched.
The coastguard found the man and took him to hospital, but he died soon afterwards.