UK weather heatwave: Temperatures set to rise into low 30s through the week, Met Office forecast
The UK is bracing for a spell of warm and sunny weather, with temperatures expected to climb steadily into the low 30s by the end of the week, according to the Met Office.
A yellow heat health alert has been issued for the southern half of England by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), warning of potential impacts to health services. The alert, which came into effect at 10am on Wednesday, will remain in place until 10am next Tuesday. It covers London, the East and West Midlands, East Anglia, the South East, and South West.
“The UK is set to experience a marked rise in temperatures midweek, with much of the country enjoying dry and sunny conditions,” a Met Office spokesperson said. “While the North West remains unsettled, elsewhere it will feel increasingly warm, even hot in places, particularly across southern and eastern regions.”
Daytime highs of 26C to 28C are expected across central parts of the country from Wednesday, while the South West could see the mercury push towards 28C. By the weekend, even parts of the far north and west are forecast to see highs “in the high 20s and low 30s,” the Met Office added.
Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said: “There’ll be sunny skies for the south and the east first thing Wednesday, but a lot of cloud elsewhere. It’s mostly dry into the afternoon and it’s turning warmer day by day. It’s even warmer across northern areas as the cloud breaks up and fronts push further north.”
By Thursday and Friday, the highest temperatures are expected to settle across parts of eastern Wales and central, southern, and eastern England. But it may be the northern and western parts of the UK that see the biggest deviations from average.
“Actually, it’s not the South East where we’ll see the highest temperatures,” McGivern explained. “It’s more towards the north and the west. Certainly compared with what we’d normally expect at this time of year, the biggest anomalies compared with climate will be across the far north and west of the UK.
“And we’re talking about widely, temperatures in the high 20s and low 30s. So yeah, increasingly warm, if not hot, in many places by the end of the week and into the weekend.”
The forecast follows a record-setting summer so far. The hottest day of 2025 was recorded on July 1 at St James’s Park in London, where temperatures hit 34.7C. The capital also saw the hottest-ever start to the Wimbledon tennis championships, and provisional Met Office figures show that June was England’s warmest on record.
An official heatwave is declared when a region sees temperatures exceed set thresholds - which vary between 25C and 28C - for three consecutive days.
When will the heat end?
The Met office said: “There are signs that less hot, or fresher, conditions may arrive from the west early next week, but exactly how quickly this transfers eastward is uncertain. It’s certainly possible that hot conditions may persist for a while longer, especially towards central, southern and eastern areas.”