‘Heatwave’ verdict as climate professional says UK might ‘simply’ hit 26C this month
The UK could “quite easily” soon see a heatwave with temperatures reaching as high as 26C – but we might have to wait a little while, according to a leading weather expert.
Jim Dale, Senior Meteorological Consultant at British Weather Services, told the Daily Star there is currently “no indication” heatwave conditions will strike before the middle of May. But that could well change in the latter half of this month.
Although we have seen “increased warmth and increased humidity” as of late, Mr Dale explained: “For now, we’re locked into – generally speaking – lower pressure than we’d want, so therefore across this Bank Holiday weekend and just beyond it, we are at the mercy of further showers, further thunderstorms.”
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(Image: Getty Images)
Thankfully, Mr Dale expects there to still be “plenty of dry weather” in the coming days, especially in inland areas, and there are also signs we could see conditions warm up next week.
He told us: “There is an indication it’ll start warming up by Thursday (May 9). We get three days I think, Thursday, Friday, Saturday next week, [it looks likely to be] dry, probably sunny, probably pleasant – universally so. And by that I’m talking 21C, 22C, 23C. So we’re back into the low-, maybe even mid-20Cs.”
However, these conditions will not constitute an official heatwave. The Met Office defines a heatwave as “when a location records a period of at least three consecutive days with maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding a heatwave temperature threshold”. The threshold varies by region from 25C to 28C.
(Image: Getty Images)
Mr Dale does think the second half of May could bring a heatwave, if the ideal conditions fall into place. He said: “As for heatwave weather, anything in the 27C, 28C category, at the moment I haven’t got it this side of the mid-month period.
“It becomes more and more likely in the second half of the month, for common sense reasons. If we get a dry spell there’s every chance of getting to 25C, 26C quite easily. But for that we need a southerly flow, we need something coming up from Spain way or Algeria way.”
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