The weather across Britain and Ireland will be making the headlines for much of this week as a significant heatwave builds, culminating in daytime temperatures reaching the high thirties across parts of central and southern England. Should the hottest air arrive as currently expected, the previous June record temperature of 35.6°C, set back in 1976, will come under threat.

High pressure is now sitting over the North Sea helping to draw in some of that very warm continental air today, but it's not a straightforward picture with a couple of trough features affecting some northern and western regions this morning. So, for much of Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland, there is a fair amount of cloud around with some showery bursts of rain in places, but these will tend to break up as we go through the day with some sunny spells developing, although southern Scotland may well remain dull and damp.

At the same time, cloud will increase across Wales, western and northern England after a fine start, with some scattered heavy showers breaking out this afternoon which could turn thundery in places. This leaves East Anglia and southeast England with a largely fine and sunny day and here temperatures will rocket, with maximums of a humid 30°C to 33°C expected. It will be cooler around coasts, as well as the further north and west that you are, but there will be a muggy feel to the weather in most regions.

A warm night follows in many regions, but especially towards the south where values will not fall below the high teens. Many places will become dry, but a few showers may well continue well into the night and there is the continued risk of some of these being thundery. Tomorrow is then shaping up to be an increasingly fine day once any early low cloud and showers clear with many places seeing plenty of sunshine and temperatures soaring as a result.

METEOROLOGIST : BARBER

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