Advanced weather modelling maps show just how early temperatures could start to surge this summer ahead of what the Met Office expects will be a warmer-than-usual season
Weather maps have registered a massive temperature spike, with the mercury surging towards 25C in the wake of the Met Office’s recent heatwave warning.
The latest forecasts predict another burst of heat is on the cards after what has been a stiflingly warm end to spring and beginning to the new season, with the mercury rising into the high-20Cs in recent weeks. High humidity over the weekend pushed the hot weather as far as 8C above the seasonal average on Saturday, early Met Office records showed, and the agency has warned it now expects a hotter-than-usual summer peppered with regular heatwaves.
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The latest maps from WXCharts show massive swathes of the country warming up early this month. Temperature anomaly maps show surges in a large band from London all the way up to Newcastle, where the mercury looks set to broadly settle above 20C by June 12. Temperatures in London and the south-east will reach the highest, up to 25C in Essex and on the Norfolk coast.
The mercury will reach 24C further inland in areas like King’s Lynn, Peterborough and Cambridge, with similar highs in Kent. Elsewhere in the south-east, the mercury will hold steady between 21C and 22C, with 21C highs bleeding as far north as Newcastle and as far west as the Welsh border.
Elsewhere in comparison, temperatures won’t feel so intensely summery, with highs sticking between 11C, on the Scottish west coast, and 19C around Wales and the English south coast.
The maps give an early taste of what the Met Office predicts will be an especially warm summer this year, which comes with an increased risk of heatwaves. The agency’s three-month outlook predicts the chance of a hot summer is higher than normal, bringing an increased risk of heatwaves and heat-related impacts.
The outlook shows it is 2.3 times more likely than normal that the UK will be hot over meteorological summer, which by meteorological standards begins on June 1 and ends August 31.
The average temperatures across the UK over those months range from 10-17C, with the south-east of England experiencing the high averages of 16-17C. A Met Office spokesperson said: “While the current three-month outlook shows an increased chance of a hot summer, the temperature signals for this summer are similar to those for recent years and consistent with our warming climate.
“The increased chance of hotter than average temperatures is not a guarantee of prolonged hot weather or heatwaves , but it does mean that heatwave conditions could be reached at times.
“However, it’s important to bear in mind that an increased chance of hot conditions could also reflect a mix of hot and cool days, warm nights, or less extreme levels of warmth rather than continual heatwave conditions specifically.”
