UK braces for 30C heatwave as Europe faces heat dome
Southern England is set to near 30C as a yellow health alert covers London and the South East, while much of Europe faces heat above 40C in places.
A band of extreme heat has settled across Europe, pushing Spain, France and Italy toward the high 30s Celsius and, in some places, above 40C, while the UK sits on the edge of the system and prepares for a sharp rise in temperatures. The Met Office says the pattern is being driven by strong high pressure over continental Europe, a setup that suppresses cloud and lets sunshine build heat day after day.
The result is a marked north-south split across the UK. Southern and eastern England are expected to draw in increasingly warm, humid air, while cooler, more unsettled conditions linger to the northwest. Southern England could approach 30C by Friday, some southern and southeastern areas are likely to meet heatwave criteria by Saturday and more widely on Sunday, and the warmest locations could reach 32C on Sunday and 33C on Monday.
The health warning has already been stepped up. The UK Health Security Agency has issued a Yellow Heat-Health Alert for the East Midlands, the East of England, London and the South East from 3pm on Wednesday 17 June until 8pm on Monday 22 June. The alert is designed to give early warning to health and social care services, the voluntary sector and government departments when high temperatures may affect the population.
Gregory Wolverson, the Met Office’s deputy chief forecaster, said the weather reflects the usual summer contrast between unsettled northwestern conditions and heat building in the south and east, and said many parts of southern and eastern England are likely to see temperatures high enough to meet heatwave thresholds. Under Met Office rules, a UK heatwave is recorded when a location has at least three consecutive days with maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding its local threshold, which varies by county.
The current surge follows an unusually early late-May heat event that already strained records. The UK reached 35.1C at Kew Gardens on 26 May, its hottest May day on record, while Portugal hit 40.3C and temperatures also climbed to 36C in France. The Met Office says much of central and western Europe is now running about 10C above average for mid-June, a reminder that the challenge is shifting from watching for rare spikes to preparing for repeated heat that tests public health systems and the resilience of daily life.
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