Brits are basking in an unprecedented spout of May bank holiday sunshine as authorities report record-high temperatures for this time of year and warn against dangerously high UV rays.
A heat wave, which the Met Office — the U.K.’s national meteorological service — called an “exceptional spell of warmth for May,” is beating down across the country, with highs of 35 C expected this week in Lincolnshire, in the East of England, through the Midlands, western parts of East Anglia and the London area, it said in a statement Monday.
“Temperatures exceeding 30°C are expected from southern parts of northern England southwards and westwards into eastern Wales,” the service added.
The U.K. rarely sees such scorching heat, especially in spring and even in summer, when average temperatures in the south of England tend to linger between the high teens and the mid-to-low 20s.
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Monday was the hottest May day in the U.K. in more than 80 years; the last record was set on May 29, 1944, at Camden Square in London and in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, and before that, in 1922, when temperatures hit 32.8 C.
In the second half of the 20th century, the U.K. experienced highs of 35 C or more all year only once a decade, according to a 2025 BBC report.
“Overall, the pattern is clear,” the Met Office wrote. “May 30°C events are sporadic rather than regular, typically separated by many years.”
The three warmest springs on record have all occurred since 2017, in a series dating back to 1884, it says.
“So, while the daily threshold of 30°C in May remains an infrequent occurrence, the temperatures experienced in spring overall have shown a rising trend,” the agency added.
The hottest day ever recorded in the U.K. was July 19, 2022, when temperatures reached 40.3 C. Summer 2025 was officially the warmest on record in the U.K., with a mean temperature of 16.10 C, surpassing the previous record of 15.76 C set in 2018.
Meanwhile, in Canada, following a bitterly cold winter, spring has sprung ahead of what will likely be among the hottest years on record, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s latest global mean temperature forecast, driven by the El Niño weather system.
Environment Canada says the phenomenon “can be distinguished when the surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific extending westward from Ecuador become warmer than average.”
“The changing pattern of the Pacific Ocean causes a shift in the atmospheric circulation, which then impacts weather patterns across much of the earth,” and is likely to exacerbate Canada’s wildfire season.
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