Met Office delivers verdict on new heat wave to hit UK ‘before the end of May’

The Met Office has weighed in on reports that a heatwave could hit the UK before the end of May. Early projections and forecasts from the Met Office suggest there is little hope of the country breaking its current 2024 record of 25.9C set in East Sussex last weekend amid a warm blast of 72 for hours.

But a weather chart shown in a Met Office Deep Dive video on YouTube suggests that Saturday May 25 will be the day with the most hope for a rise in temperatures before the end of the fifth month of the year. But the Met Office says it “cannot promise anything” and “there are indications” but nothing is “concrete”.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin said: “We can’t promise anything. There’s not a strong signal, and that’s often the case for this time of year because it’s May, because there’s not a lot of contrast between the North Pole and The equator, there’s not a lot of power in the jet stream.”

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But he adds: “There are signs … signs of high pressure. There are some signs of high pressure, but it is far from ready. It’s weak, it’s just a little more likely than not of high pressure… There’s been a little bit of talk about high pressure coming back. We can’t talk about that at this stage.

“There are some signals right now, but pretty weak signals.” Giving a verdict for the UK today (Friday), the Met Office said: “At first patchy low cloud, mist and fog. This clearing soon will leave a much brighter and warmer day than Thursday, with sunny spells and just isolated afternoon showers. “

Any showers tend to disappear this evening to leave a dry night. Areas of low cloud develop again with mist and fog possible in places. Remaining generally mild, the Met Office said. His outlook for Saturday adds: “Pretty cloudy mainly but some light in places. Sunny spells develop more widely by the afternoon, but scattered heavy showers also form. Feeling warm in the sunlight.”