UK to be hit by second heatwave in a matter of days from Mediterranean airstream

The country is set to be hit by another big heatwave as an airstream traveling across from the Mediterranean lands in the UK next month.

While summer is in full swing in certain parts of the country, there's been plenty of rain and drizzle in other areas to bring the sunshine mood down. However, according to Netweather, July is set to be the hottest month of the summer, with temperatures up to 2C hotter than the average.

The UK's Met Office describes 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".

'Very high' risk of July 'mega heatwave' with UK temperatures 'surpassing 35C'

According to Netweather's calculations however, there is also predicted to be "slightly above average rainfall" across the summer season, with June an August having the greatest chance of exceeding the averages - and July being drier than average.

James Madden, of Exactaweather, also predicted the arrival of "some further heat and extreme heat during July, particularly during the period of July 10–20, possibly a little earlier."

Back in early June, the forecaster stated: "We can also expect further changes to these third-party computer projections going forward and to pave the way for a very warm to exceptionally hot July, with the high possibility of some sort of mega or super heatwave developing for an extended duration within this period."

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Writing in the Summer 2024 - Commercial Weather Forecast report, James also said temperatures could reach mid-to-high 30s at the very least. He wrote: "It is still very early days for this developing scenario, but if things continue to develop as expected over the next several weeks, then there is no reason why we couldn't see temperatures topping out at the mid to high 30's at the very least, particularly in more southern areas, but even parts further north and all the way up to Scotland could see temperatures exceeding the 30C mark for a number of days in this part of July."

The report also says a "major and inevitable run of thunderstorms" and flooding events could follow on from the heatwave, caused by major instability within the atmosphere, "particularly in some parts of southwest and northwest England."