An area of the UK stretching from the North West to the South East of England is officially experiencing a heatwave, the Met Office has said.
A heatwave is defined as three consecutive days with daily maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding the heatwave temperature threshold.
The threshold varies in each county, with the highest of 28C in and around London, and the lowest being 25C in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England.
It comes as weather alerts for thunderstorms remain in place from 12pm to 9pm for Scotland and Northern Ireland after much of the UK was hit by heavy rain, hail and lightning on Monday.
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A previous amber thunderstorm warning covered parts of Leicester, Birmingham, Worcester, Gloucester and Oxford, with Liverpool and parts of the North West also affected.
Torrential rain also temporarily stopped the Manchester City trophy parade after the club won the Treble on Saturday.
But warm weather has returned to the UK, with highs of 28C (82.4F) expected around 4-5pm on Tuesday in both London and Manchester.
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, also issued a high air pollution warning to those in the capital – the second of the year – caused by high temperatures and pollution being carried over from the continent.
He asked people to “look after themselves” and avoid unnecessary car journeys, opting instead to walk, cycle or take public transport.
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With drier weather expected to continue into the latter parts of the week, Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England, urged weather readers to change their tone when speaking about the hot and sunny spell, because the country “needs rain”.
“Our rivers & wetlands are dying & wildlife fading away. We need RAIN. It is good. You can’t make the weather, but please stop saying global heating is a positive thing,” he wrote in a tweet.
West Cumbria Rivers Trust (WCRT) & the National Trust also warned that what should be the wettest part of England has rivers running almost completely dry, creating “disastrous” conditions for wildlife like fish.
Over the weekend a temperature of 32C (89.6F) was recorded at Kew Gardens in southwest London and much of the UK was hotter than Monaco and the French Riviera where temperatures languished in the low 20s.
It fell just short of this year’s record high of 32.2C (89.96F) which was reached on Saturday in Chertsey, Surrey.
