UK temperatures break May records for second day in a row

The UK record for the hottest May day has been broken for a second consecutive day, as parts of London surpassed 35C on Tuesday.

Kew Gardens in south-west London recorded a provisional temperature of 35.1C, beating Monday's 34.8C record-high in the same place.

"Until yesterday, the highest temperature in May was 32.8C, but we've now exceeded that record on consecutive days by a full two degrees Celsius," the Met Office posted on X.

Wales also broke May records for the second consecutive day, as provisional temperatures reached 32.3C at Cardiff's Bute Park, surpassing Monday's 32.2C at Hawarden Airport in Flintshire.

Before Monday and Tuesday's record-breaking highs, May's warmest day in the UK was 32.8C in 1922 and 1944.

Six amber heat health alerts issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) cover much of England and will be active until Thursday.

The alert warns significant impacts are likely across health and social care services due to high temperatures, including increased demand on all health and social care services.

Much of England and Wales are in an official heatwave as of Tuesday. A location has to reach a threshold temperature - 25C for northern and western areas and 28C in London and Home Counties - for three days in a row.

This early season heat is consistent with the long-term trend of rising temperatures because of human-caused climate change.

The Met Office's chief operational meteorologist Dan Suri also said the high temperatures were due to "the influence of warmth building under an area of high pressure near the UK."

The heat has also affected passengers travelling on trains up and down the county, with Network Rail imposing a series of speed restrictions on tracks to keep trains safe.

National rail said heat can cause overhead lines to expand and sag, line-side fires and also rails to buckle.

South Western Railway (SWR) warned train services running across its while network may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised due to issues including heat-related speed restrictions.

High Track temperatures disrupted LNER services between Peterborough and London Kings Cross.

There was also major disruption to Great Northern, Thameslink and Southern networks.

Meanwhile in Kent, dozens of homes have been left with little or no water for the third day.

The outages began on Saturday and peaked on Sunday when about 800 properties in the villages of Charing, Challock and Molash were unable to get water.

South East Water (SEW) said teams were working hard to restore drinking water supplies across the region following "high demand during the exceptionally hot weather", which led to "storage reservoirs running low in parts of Kent".

As exceptionally warm spring temperatures hit during the Bank holiday long weekend, four people died at English swimming spots.