The UK is bracing itself for the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures forecast to hit 26C or even 27C on Thursday.
Until now, the warmest the country has experienced is 25.1C, recorded in Porthmadog, north Wales, on 30 May, last Tuesday.
Met Office experts have been predicting since December that this year will be one of the Earth’s hottest on record.
They say the average global temperature for 2023 is forecast to be between around 1.2C above the pre-industrial average – the tenth year in a row that temperatures have reached at least 1C above those levels.
Beaches around the UK were crowded with sun-worshippers over the sunny weekend.
The highest temperature recorded on Sunday was again in Porthmadog, where it hit 25C, while Castlederg, Northern Ireland, enjoyed 24.5C, Bournemouth recorded 24.2C and Glasgow hit a high of 24.1C for Scotland.
The thermometer is expected to rise further this week in Wales and southwest England, which could experience 26C or 27C on Thursday, according to the Met Office.
However, there could be showers in the south of England towards the end of the week.
Meteorologist Greg Dewhurst said: “There will be lots of dry weather, with the sunnier skies always in the west and cloudier in the east.
“Temperatures are going to be similar, if not a little bit higher, towards the end of the week.
“This west-east split will be continuing with temperatures as well.”
In western parts of the UK temperatures will rise to around the mid-20s, while the mid- to high teens is more likely on the eastern side of the UK, he said.
But the southwest may become windier towards the end of the week.
Meteorologists are watching out for the onset of an El Nino event, which could spark a heatwave potentially as bad as last year’s, when the country wilted in record temperatures that reached 40.3C.
An El Nino is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5C above the long-term average, and it drives extreme weather globally by supercharging human-caused warming.
The Met Office and health chiefs have created a new colour-coded heatwave alert system in England in preparation for longer and worse heat, and its effect on people’s health.
In the coming two weeks, temperatures will be “generally near to above average”, but in the second half of the month, they will be “widely above average, perhaps significantly so”, according to Met Office forecasters.
There will be a risk of occasional heavy rain or thunderstorms in the south but with plenty of dry and warm weather in between.