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Daily Mirror
21-07-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mirror
UK thunderstorm maps show 14 regions to be battered by lightning and heavy rain
Brits up and down the nation are bracing for potential flooding and travel disruption as the Met Office has blanketed the majority of the country under yellow weather alerts Yellow weather alerts for thunderstorms and heavy rain have been issued across the UK, putting a brutal end to the country's heat spell. Britain's blue skies and scorching temperatures have quickly been replaced with stark warnings for heavy showers and thunderstorms which could result in travel chaos and even flash flooding. More than a dozen regions have today (Monday, July 21) been included in the Met Office's weather warnings - which include two thunderstorm alerts and two 'rain' alerts. "Rainfall amounts will vary from place to place but 20-30 mm is likely within an hour in a few places, with a small chance of 40-50 mm in one or two locations; this most likely across southern Scotland and northern England," the Met Office states. "Lightning strikes are also likely along with the potential for hail and gusty winds." Speaking exclusively with the Mirror, Jim Dale, the founder and Senior Meteorological Consultant at British Weather Services, says it's hard to predict the exact time the storm will batter Brits due to the erroneous nature of the 'random beasts. "This is very likely the last day of major thunderstorm risk for now," he added. "But within that risk anything goes, including lightning strikes, hail, gusty winds, flash floods, and maybe -just maybe - the odd mini tornado. Most of us will inevitably miss them but if you happen to be in one of them expect any of the above and take cover." Want big news with big heart? Get the top headlines sent straight to your inbox with our Daily Newsletter The first warning (labelled below as 1/2) , which is slated to last from 3am and is in place until 9pm, impacts England's south east, including Greater London, Kent, and Oxfordshire. This warning was updated at 10am and has actually shrunken in size as the Met Office removed parts of southern England from the yellow zone. The second warning (labelled below as 2/2), which started at 11am and is also in place until 9pm, impacts a much larger area of the country. Yellow thunderstorm alert - full list of affected areas (1/2) East of England Bedford Cambridgeshire Central Bedfordshire Essex Hertfordshire Luton Norfolk Southend-on-Sea Suffolk Thurrock London and South East England Bracknell Forest Brighton and Hove Buckinghamshire East Sussex Greater London Hampshire Kent Medway Milton Keynes Oxfordshire Portsmouth Reading Slough Southampton Surrey West Berkshire West Sussex Windsor and Maidenhead Wokingham South West England Swindon Wiltshire Yellow Thunderstorm warning - full list of affected areas (2/2) Central, Tayside & Fife Angus Clackmannanshire Dundee Falkirk Fife Perth and Kinross Stirling East Midlands Derby Derbyshire Leicester Leicestershire Lincolnshire Northamptonshire Nottingham Nottinghamshire Rutland East of England Bedford Cambridgeshire Norfolk Peterborough Grampian Aberdeenshire Moray Highlands & Eilean Siar Highland London & South East England Buckinghamshire Milton Keynes Oxfordshire North East England Darlington Durham Gateshead Hartlepool Middlesbrough Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside Northumberland Redcar and Cleveland South Tyneside Stockton-on-Tees Sunderland North West England Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Cheshire East Cheshire West and Chester Cumbria Greater Manchester Halton Lancashire Merseyside Warrington SW Scotland, Lothian Borders Dumfries and Galloway East Lothian Edinburgh Midlothian Council Scottish Borders West Lothian South West England Gloucestershire Swindon Wiltshire Strathclyde Argyll and Bute East Ayrshire East Dunbartonshire East Renfrewshire Glasgow Inverclyde North Ayrshire North Lanarkshire Renfrewshire South Ayrshire South Lanarkshire West Dunbartonshire Wales Conwy Denbighshire Flintshire Gwynedd Powys Wrexham West Midlands Herefordshire Shropshire Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent Telford and Wrekin Warwickshire West Midlands Conurbation Worcestershire Yorkshire & Humber East Riding of Yorkshire Kingston upon Hull North East Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire North Yorkshire South Yorkshire West Yorkshire York The Highlands have also been placed under a yellow weather alert for heavy rain. The warning will come into place at 3pm and is expected to last until 6am the following morning. Over in Northern Ireland, an existing yellow warning for rain is predicted to end at 6pm this evening.
Metro
03-07-2025
- Climate
- Metro
UK weather set for wet weekend and cooler temperatures after blistering heatwave
After the UK recorded the hottest day of 2025 so far earlier this week, Britons will finally get a chance to cool off. Temperatures hit 33.6°C in Kent on Tuesday as Wimbledon attendees tried to find any bits of shade to hide in as they waited in the queue. Thankfully, this weekend will bring some much-needed rain and cooler air. Today, the weather will remain mostly dry and warm, but overnight winds will pick up as a cold front moves in. The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for rain beginning tomorrow across parts of western Scotland, just north of Glasgow. In northern England, the wind will turn into rain, which could become heavy at times in the northwest near Liverpool. Tomorrow, much of the northern UK will feel wind and rain, but it will remain dry and a bit sunny around London and in the south, with spells of rain showers. Temperatures will drop in the capital to 22°C on Saturday, paired with rain showers and a low temperature of 17°C – sure to be a relief after this week's intense heat. It's too early to predict any future heatwaves in the UK this summer, but temperatures will likely rise again. Met Office Climate Scientist Dr Amy Doherty said: 'While we've not conducted formal climate attribution studies into June 2025's two heatwaves, past studies have shown it is virtually certain that human influence has increased the occurrence and intensity of extreme heat events such as this. 'Numerous climate attribution studies have shown that human influence increased the chance that specific extreme heat events would occur, such as the summer of 2018 and July 2022. 'Our Met Office climate projections indicate that hot spells will become more frequent in our future climate, particularly over the southeast of the UK. More Trending 'Temperatures are projected to rise in all seasons, but the heat would be most intense in summer.' Senior meteorologist Jim Dale told Metro earlier this week that heatwaves will become a regular occurrence in the UK. 'The dots are very clear, and they make a picture; one of records falling left, right and centre,' he said. 'It's not just air temperature records, it's sea temperatures too, with record levels in the Mediterranean even in June, never mind July and August.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Is it safe to travel to Crete? Latest tourist advice amid wildfire evacuations MORE: 'Biblical' wildfires in Crete lead to evacuations from hotels in holiday hotspot MORE: Teen struck by lightning through her phone charger in freak accident
Metro
30-06-2025
- Climate
- Metro
Naked man strolls through Newcastle town centre on hottest day of year
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video This was the moment a man walked through Newcastle town centre in his birthday suit on one of the hottest days of the year so far. Temperatures hit 24C in the city yesterday, but soared to 28C today – and it seems some are desperate to escape the heat. Onlookers were left stunned after spotting the fully-naked man, who wasn't even wearing shoes, on the High Street shortly after 5 pm on Saturday. The man was casually walking past shoppers near the Guild Hall, before further footage showed him sprinting across a roundabout. It comes as today, temperatures have got so high in London that Wimbledon fans were urged not to travel. Wimbledon is set for its hottest opening day ever, with temperatures expected to surpass the previous record of 29.3°C set on June 25, 2001. The hottest day the tournament has seen was on July 1, 2015, when temperatures reached 35.7°C. In Scotland, brave gamekeepers took on raging wildfires armed only with a leafblower to stop the spread to rural communities. Much of England will enter a fourth day of a heatwave, forecast to be hotter than holiday spots in Barbados, Jamaica and Mexico. Since 1960, UK temperatures in June have surpassed 34°C in only three years, with the hottest being 35.6°C, recorded on June 28, 1976, during the hottest and longest heatwave ever recorded. But an expert told Metro that scorching 40C temperatures will soon become the 'new normal' in the UK. Jim Dale said that the UK and the rest of the world are in danger of 'boiling over' as extreme heat becomes a regular occurrence due to climate change. Mr Dale spoke as the country bakes on the fourth day of a heatwave that is predicted to set a record-breaking 34C (93.2F) plus for the month of June. More Trending He has spent the last 40 years warning about the impact of global warming and now believes the planet is close to a tipping point. 'Yes, from time to time, in the past 50 or 100 years, we have had heatwaves,' Mr Dale said. 'However, the top 10 global and UK temperatures have nearly all come in the last 20 years. 'This is the new abnormal. The dots are very clear, and they make a picture; one of records falling left, right and centre.' Firefighters in Turkey and France were responding today as both countries experienced extreme heat, with readings exceeding 40C (104F) in both countries over the past week. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Woman finds 'hidden camera' inside rented home's bathroom smoke alarm MORE: Easyjet launches 11 new flights from major UK airport to Greece, Spain, Portugal and more MORE: Greek hotel hits back after gran complained there was no English food and they only did chips on one day
Metro
18-06-2025
- Climate
- Metro
UK now 20 times more likely to see a 40°C summer
Heatwave-level hot weather will be here for a while – and we might even see temperatures pass 40°C this summer, a UK forecaster has warned. A UK heatwave is expected to be officially declared by this weekend, with temperatures reaching over 30°C tomorrow and sticking around until next week, before another burst of hot weather likely at the end of the month. While many will enjoy the chance of sunning themselves, hotter weather, for example heatwaves, are part of a concerning trend. The UK is now over 20 times more likely to see 40°C heat than it was in the 1960s, the Met Office warned today. Jim Dale, a forecaster who founded British Weather Services, told Metro the rising risk of heatwaves is obvious just from the weather so far in 2025. The driest spring on record, with drought conditions already seen in some areas, has given way to a sunny start to summer that shows no sign of easing. 'We may well see 40°C again before we get to the end of the month,' he said, with the caveat that it's still far enough away for weather models to have a wide margin of error. Dr Gillian Kay, lead author of a Met Office study into heatwaves, said: 'Because our climate continues to warm, we can expect the chance [of 40°C heat] to keep rising. 'We estimate a 50-50 chance of seeing a 40°C day again in the next 12 years. 'We also found that temperatures several degrees higher than we saw in July 2022 are possible in today's climate.' She warned that the UK must 'prepare for even higher heat extremes in the near future'. When UK temperatures went over 40° for the first time that year, it was seen as a shocking outlier. People camped out wherever they could find air conditioning, as London's fire brigade had its busiest day since World War Two. But this type of heatwave may be something we UK residents have to get used to, with models showing the likelihood is shooting up. Dr Nick Dunstone, Met Office Science Fellow and study co-author, said: 'The well-known hot summer of 1976 had more than a fortnight above 28°C, which is a key heatwave threshold in southeast England. 'Our study finds that in today's climate such conditions could persist for a month or more.' If you thought the current UK heatwave was sweltering, there is worse to come, that might even have you looking at flights to Finland. The US National Weather Service's GFS weather model shows another blast of hot air coming our way at the end of June. Mr Dale said it's not normal to be having such hot weather so early on: 'June isn't the hottest month of the year – it never is. July and August are.' He said dry conditions early in the year have made hot conditions more likely. Warmer weather has led to the North Sea, Irish Sea and English Channel being warmer too, meaning when wind blows over the water it has less of a cooling effect. Mr Dale pointed out that other countries have also been experiencing record heat. Temperatures were expected to be over 40°C in southern Spain today, and some stations recorded over 42°C last week. More Trending The Middle East, Asia, and North Africa are all 'going through their June records, if not all time records,' Mr Dale said. 'We're surrounded by all this heat, so it was almost inevitable we would get into an airstream that would deliver the same for us. Hey presto, it's doing that now and will do so for the next four or five days.' The reason for the increased heat is 'climate change, without a shadow of a doubt,' he said. 'It's what is written on the can of climate change: swapping from wet times in winter, to dry times in summer, and droughts etc.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: The ultimate guide for travelling on the Tube in a heatwave MORE: I love living in London — but it sucks in the summer MORE: For the latest Glastonbury weather forecast you need to follow a guy called Gav
Daily Mirror
29-05-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mirror
New maps turn red as 28C blast brings blistering sizzler to Britain
Britain's first proper heat blast of the year has been pinpointed and large swathes of the country could see 28C highs by the start of June Brits should expect what could be the first heatwave of the year in a matter of days, new weather maps show. The entire eastern coast of England looks set to be hit with a blistering 28C heatwave by June 11, with southern coastlines and the south-west seeing a noticeable 6-7C drop. Currently, it looks set to last until June 12 when temperatures start to simmer down. Jim Dale, a climate spokesman and founder of British Weather Services confirmed hotter changes are afoot, but they will be gradual as June arrives. He told the Mirror: "It's not going to be so hot so quickly but there are solid signs after the first week of June, when if things map out as now, we can expect 30C plus on the cards." In the Met Office's long-range weather forecast from June 11 to June 25, the forecaster doesn't rule out a hot spell, but cautions thunderstorms as a result of a climbing, and humid, mercury. It says: "Changeable weather across the UK with a mixture of Atlantic weather systems moving in from the west interspersed with dry and sunny periods. Wetter conditions tending to be towards the northwest of the UK, with the south and southeast likely to see more in the way of dry weather. "Temperatures are most likely to be near or slightly above normal, perhaps with some hot spells at times, especially across the south. Any hot spells may be accompanied by an increased chance of thunderstorms though." What do weather maps show? From this weekend the nation's fortunes will begin to change with 20C highs remaining stable next week. By Saturday, June 7, this will increase by a degree in the south-east, and it'll be the second week of June when the mercury ramps up considerably. By Tuesday, June 10 much of London, Kent and Essex will see the bulk of the heat arriving - with 25C to 26C bringing strong UV rays for many. This will be more like 24C in the north with cities such as Leeds and Newcastle seeing such temperatures. By Wednesday maps turn dark red - indicating a widespread 28C blanket to cover much of the country, including northern cities, towns and villages. However, current GFS maps show the heat could start to fade by the Friday. In the UK, a heatwave is confirmed if hot weather exceeding a specific temperature remains consistent for three days. For much of England, Wales and Scotland this is 25C, according to the Met Office. Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, along with central London need to record 28C highs for three days in a row for a heatwave to be declared.
