UK experiences ‘tropical night’ after hottest ever May day

The UK experienced a “tropical night” on Monday as the record for highest daily minimum temperature in May was broken for the second consecutive day.

Temperatures did not fall below 21.3C on Monday at Kenley airfield in south London after the UK recorded its hottest May day since Met Office data began, the forecaster said.

The country also recorded its provisional all-time hottest meteorological spring temperature when Kew Gardens in south-west London hit 34.8C on Monday. The previous all-time May peak stood at 32.8C reached in 1922 and 1944.

The Met Office listed 12 locations where the record was topped on Monday – ranging from Suffolk to Berkshire to Warwickshire – while 97 of its monitoring sites reached or surpassed 30C.

The UK’s previous warmest May night was Sunday, when temperatures did not fall below 19.4C at Kenley airfield.

“We have provisionally broken the UK record for highest daily minimum temperature in May … again,” the forecaster said.

“Temperatures didn’t fall below 21.3C overnight at Kenley airfield, making it a ‘tropical night’ (no lower than 20C),” it added. “Remarkably, the record was also broken yesterday.”

Bournemouth beach on Monday. Photograph: Simon Ackerman/Getty Images

“In the past, heatwaves built and built and built and built over days and days and days, these now just develop so quickly,” the Met Office’s senior forecaster Greg Dewhurst said on Monday, adding that climate change was boosting the heat.

On Tuesday, highs of 35C were expected for large swathes of southern England and Wales, which could reach near 36C, a Met Office meteorologist said. Those forecasts also spanned the Midlands, as well as south-east and south-west England, East Anglia and south Wales.

Many places across England and Wales will reach the heatwave threshold on Tuesday, with some having experienced it for five days by Wednesday, said Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell. There may be thunderstorms in the afternoon, affecting high temperatures.

A heatwave means temperatures must meet or surpass a specific threshold for three consecutive days. For this time of year, the highest heatwave threshold in the UK is 28C, applied to London and north of the capital towards Cambridgeshire.

In eight parts of England, those conditions were already met by Sunday evening, including in Heathrow, Kew Gardens and Northolt London, and locations in Oxfordshire, Suffolk and Essex. The figure was anticipated to be higher after the bank holiday weather, however data was yet to be released.