Scorchio...

[TimC]

Over 40 at Heathrow now, which is a lot of Fahrenheit (for tabloid headline writers).

Isn't 40.1°C satisfyingly 104°F?

36.7°C is the highest my machine has recorded. Now down a touch from that.

My nephew recorded 40.3°C yesterday in Chelmsford. I'm never confident about the accuracy of cheap thermometers. I used to have a maxi-mini thermometer which, on the day of the infamous "frozen elephant" WARTY, recorded -10°C a few minutes before we left home. That day, the two official weather stations nearest our ride, Andrewsfield and Wattisham, recorded the highest between them of -2.8°C. Some considerable time later, I retired my maxi-mini thermometer because when I tested it in iced water it read -2°C.

I have some confidence in my current setup, a Davis Vantage Pro, which is used extensively by meteorologists for automatic weather recording. I think it records temperatures accurately, but of course I live in a built-up area with a south-facing rear garden so there's no way I can set my machine up to comply with the Met Office's preferred standard of "in the middle of a lawn at least 10m square" or whatever it is. I can think of a few occasions when it has recorded a higher temperature on a given day than anywhere else in the country, usually when the official maximum isn't too far away - Gravesend being a good example of somewhere that often seems to record high temperatures.

Heathrow has a habit of recording the highest temperature anywhere because it's got probably the biggest expanse of black tarmac anywhere in Europe. This makes a difference. FoE locally are haranguing the council for replacing old-fashioned light-grey paving stones with black tarmac, given the climate change implications of very hot days..

Heathrow's surfaces are primarily concrete. Very little (apart from the runways) is asphalt as it melts if fuel is spilled on it (or when it gets hot...).Obviously concrete acts as a massive storage heater, and it radiates heat back into the atmosphere, but it's not as much of a heat soak as black tarmac.

Max of 34.9C here today, so a few degrees cooler than was reported locally yesterday - though I saw 'only' 33.9 on my temperature gadget yesterday. However, the house obviously absorbed a lot of heat yesterday and the internal temperature was around 27C at the peak.

[Mr Larrington]

Just peered out of the bathroom window.  It’s looking reet murky over to the southwest but no sign of actual rain yet.  And it’s hotter in the Great Hall now than it was at 2 this arvo chiz.

[Jurek]

Back indoors now from watering the climbers.
I got rained on 
Nothing significant.
 

[Wowbagger]

I just spent about 45 minutes in the sea with some friends, then we had a drink in one of the few establishments that serves on the beach, followed by an ice cream from a parlour across the road. Very continental!

Now, there are some quite dark clouds building up to the south and west. i'm crossing my fingers, but the Met Office gives it only a 10% chance of doing anything.

Met Office says 30° outside, my machine says 28°C. It's 29° inside so I've opened some windows.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Some gentle rain is dropping the temp in NW London, thankfully. The ride to/ from the office (more or less past Heathrow) was particularly scorchio!

[ian]

Murky and gusty like there might be a storm a brewing, but despite the atmospheric foment, it's been non-productive so far. The temperature has dropped 10 degrees to 26 (while I was at the pool for an hour), so the windows are open and we've started the house cool-down which on previous form, means it'll remain unfeasibly hot for another week. Still 30.7 degrees in the remote command centre, though Bad Cat, being an idiot, is sprawled on the floor at my feet. What she's not doing is catching the free-range mouse in the living room. Which I caught once only to have it dash straight back into the house.

They seem to have turned the heating off at the pool so it was refreshingly cool if filled with unseasoned non-swimmers trying to splash a length.

[Feanor]

Here in Furryboottoon, it's clouded over and the intense direct sun of yesterday has passed, to be replaced by a humid oppressive heat.

It felt like a thunderstorm was due, but it's not happened yet.  It just gave a Laodicean attempt at rain, but that went off before I could go out and stand in it.  And that's not something that can be said often hereabouts.

[mmmmartin]

In Belgium, been to France. Camping. 43° today. Too hot to cycle really. We added two hours to today which was tiring and in the morning it's a train ride to calais then ferry on Thursday. It's 10 at night and week into the upper twenties on the campsite i reckon. Storms forecast for the morning.

[nikki]

Tonight I'm not even going to attempt sleeping in the attic bedroom and am instead putting the meshy bit of a Big Agnes tent to good use in the garden.

[Kim]

Outside temperature just reached the upstairs temperature, which means I can at least open some windows and make it smell a bit less like Apollo 10 in here.

[Pingu]

Thunder in Furryboottoon!

[ian]

Put some ice cubes in a glass of finest Chateau Sainsbury's box red (if it's a good enough way to serve wine in Vietnam, it's good enough for the jungles of Surrey) and sat out on the patio which, of course, incentivized the debut of rain drops. Petrichor, glorious petrichor.

Apparently, my patio lolligoggery is not helping to catch The Mouse. This is why we have cats.

[ian]

Oh, and dear world, and most particularly the media, please stop giving airtime and column inches to climate change deniers. It's 2022 and the world is hotter and stormier than it ever was, and it's really not about being a bit uncomfortable for a few days.

[hubner]

34 indoors now, I think the concrete block of flats must soak up the heat.

[JellyLegs]

Spent most of today in thick leggings, chasing field fires across this corner of East Anglia for the fire service.  Just discovered how much fitter this cycling lark has made me and also reminded me how hard work field fires are - 30 minutes there make a 300km audax seem like a breeze if my aching legs now are anything to go by.  Temperature reached 39.odd locally according to the BBC.

[Wowbagger]

The outside temperature had dropped to a mere 28 before going back up to an intolerable 29. I was watering some beans when a very few raindrops fell. I think it's time to pour some gin and pretend to be Somerset Maugham or something.

[rafletcher]

Spent most of today in thick leggings, chasing field fires across this corner of East Anglia for the fire service.  Just discovered how much fitter this cycling lark has made me and also reminded me how hard work field fires are - 30 minutes there make a 300km audax seem like a breeze if my aching legs now are anything to go by.  Temperature reached 39.odd locally according to the BBC.

Kudos for firefighting.

[Jurek]

29.6°C Indoors
26.6°C Outdoors.
Not really looking forward to the remainder of the night.

[Mrs Pingu]

Thunder in Furryboottoon!

It never came to anything, despite the BBC saying all day that it would. We did have an impressively windy patch pass over for about 30 mins though.

[Kim]

I need to move some bikes and wheelchair ramp and stuff to make room for an our-favourite-telco engineer to install an ONT tomorrow morning.  This is suboptimal.

ETA: *wilts*

I'm guessing that if we get some thunder, it'll be when they're due to go climbing poles.

[nicknack]

All doors and windows open here. Still 29C indoors - down from a max of 30C. No rain but I'm watching a fine lightning show in the distance somewhere south of the North Downs. To far away to hear any thunder.

[Mr Larrington]

A few spots of rain visible on the porch windows when I thought the Estate Office might have cooled off a bit and went back upstairs.  Temperature climbed from ~34 to a new high of 36.5 at which point I decided to call it a night.

[rogerzilla]

Spent most of today in thick leggings, chasing field fires across this corner of East Anglia for the fire service.  Just discovered how much fitter this cycling lark has made me and also reminded me how hard work field fires are - 30 minutes there make a 300km audax seem like a breeze if my aching legs now are anything to go by.  Temperature reached 39.odd locally according to the BBC.

I imagine most heritage railways are running diesel only this week.  Even in normal conditions, lineside fires are very common from glowing embers (they use spark arresters in the chimney of steam engines, but some embers can find their way out of the ashpan).

[Kim]

I imagine most heritage railways are running diesel only this week.  Even in normal conditions, lineside fires are very common from glowing embers (they use spark arresters in the chimney of steam engines, but some embers can find their way out of the ashpan).

Assuming they're not worried about the track bending...

[andyoxon]

24C OUT: 27C In.  Problem is that atm if we open all the windows/curtains the house will fill with mozzies/moths/bugs in general...