'Super heatwave' warning as UK temperatures tipped to surge to 'high-30Cs' next month
Brits are set to sizzle as a "super heatwave" is predicted to send temperatures soaring into the high-30Cs, according to a top weather expert.
The Met Office has a clear definition of a heatwave, stating it's "when a location records a period of at least three consecutive days with maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding a heatwave temperature threshold". Depending on the county in the UK, this threshold can range from 25C to 28C, so the predicted scorcher will easily outdo these figures if it materialises.
James Madden, a forecaster with Exacta Weather, took to Facebook last night (Wednesday, June 5) to announce that a "major heatwave or super heatwave" is expected to hit the UK around "mid-summer".
Delving deeper, Madden pinpointed the potential timing of this sweltering event. He referred back to a previous "high-confidence" forecast, indicating that the intense heat "is still on target to develop in or around mid-July for the UK and Ireland".
He also mentioned that we could see the mercury rise "reach as high as the mid- to high-30C mark" at the height of this anticipated super heatwave.
While other weather experts haven't released their detailed forecasts for mid-July yet, Netweather is already hinting at a "very warm or hot month, with high pressure often in charge".
If the Exacta Weather forecast comes to fruition, temperatures will be similar to those experienced during the scorching heatwave of July 2022. We are currently approaching the two year anniversary of when the UK experienced its hottest ever temperature and breached the 40C mark for the first time in history, with 40.3C recorded by the Met Office on July 19, 2022.
Last year, experts highlighted that the chances of us seeing 40C summers have multiplied "tenfold". Speaking on the Met Office's Weather Snap podcast, Dr Mark McCarthy, the science manager at the National Climate Information Centre (NCIC), said: "We found it was highly unlikely that we could achieve that threshold just through our natural variability alone... [for] the current climate we're in we estimated that, although still unlikely, the chances of getting to 40C have increased tenfold due to human activity."
