The UK has seen its hottest day of the year so far after a temperature of 34.8C (94.6F) was recorded in Cambridge, the Met Office has said.
The weather agency said “provisionally this is only the 11th year since 1961 temperatures as high as this have been recorded”.
“Eight of those years have been since 2000 and six of them have been in the last decade,” it added.
It comes despite the Met Office issuing two yellow weather warnings for thunderstorms for parts of northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Forecasters warned storms could cause disruption and damage to buildings – and rain did sweep across some parts of the UK in the early hours of this morning.
However, a yellow heat health alert was issued for the East and West Midlands, East of England, South East, South West, North West and London by the UK Health Security Agency.
This remains in place until 9am on Wednesday.
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